The Uchiha Truth
by scribbles-in-the-margins
Summary: A dark look at the possibility of why Itachi turned out how he did. Mature themes. Perhaps he wasn't born evil, perhaps he was never evil. A look at Itachi from birth to just after the slaughter of his clan. Violence, Language, Adult themes rate M
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

Thank you to Chibinecco for the Beta, and Beachlass and Mija for reading this as it was posted in rough draft to my LJ

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_-Prologue -_

As the sun rose on the ninth of June, Uchiha Itachi saw his first sunrise. Black eyes held no malice at that tender age. No thoughts more pressing than the emptiness in his tummy or the warmth against his cheek entered the baby boy's head. Summertime in Konohagakure met the young heir with bird song and flowers. The sun and gentle breeze did not seem to foretell anything evil coming into this world. While history would remake the day into one of storms and ill omens, the reality was just a beautiful June day when a little boy was brought into this world, seven pounds and three ounces after a long labor of nineteen hours.

Uchiha Mikoto lay in her bed in the Konoha Hospital. It had been a complicated labor so she had been moved to better medical facilities instead of remaining at the Uchiha compound. She was still tired although the delivery had been three days ago. The future leader of the Uchiha clan lay in her arms, the pale skin of his cheek against the pale skin of her shoulder. Little baby snuffles came from the sleeping boy as she brushed his wispy black hair with her slender fingers.

The little boy looked a lot like her; then again, the little boy looked like a Uchiha -- dark hair, dark eyes, pale skin. She softly kissed the top of the sleeping boy's head. It had taken four years of trying before this little boy was born. This boy would end the rumors in the clan that her husband was going to divorce her. The little boy would end the rumors that she was barren and would not be able to provide an heir to her husband. As Mikoto leaned back in bed, she looked down at the little boy. Life was looking better. Her husband would have to be happy with this child. He was healthy, he was strong, and he was male -- as perfect as any heir could be at the tender age of three days.

She had been alone in the hospital room since the child's birth aside from when a nurse or doctor stopped by. No one from the clan would come, even her own parents, until the child's father saw the boy. Mikoto did not know how long she would have to wait. She was sure her husband would be pleased with the boy. Traditionally, the strength of the Sharingan could be determined by how soon after birth a baby's eyes changed from blue to black. Itachi had been born with his eyes pitch black. She held her unnamed little boy. The child's naming would wait until his father came to see him. Names flitted through Mikoto's head. Handsome names. Strong names. Sasuke would be a good name. Takahiro, Tatsuya, Daichi …. All strong and good names.

Finally, as the sun was setting on the third day, her husband walked in. Uchiha Fugaku was an imposing figure. His black hair was sun-bleached to brown from long hours in the sun. His uniform was dirty from a long day of work. He was destined to take over the Konoha Military Police Corp in a few short years. It would be when he took over the clan as the head officially. Everyone already knew Fugaku's father had given over control to his son. Fugaku may have been an only child, but he had inherited the Sharingan strongly. The entire clan was anticipating his line being mixed with Mikoto's.

Fugaku stood taller than many others in the village. More imposing than his height though was the coldness in his eyes. He, like every other Uchiha, trained from the time he could walk in order to be the best Shinobi possible and to increase the strength of the Uchiha clan. When his eyes rested on the small pale child in Mikota's arms, he did not see a child – he saw an heir. He saw his heir. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the helpless infant. The little bundle of flesh could not yet raise its own head. It could not focus on objects more than a few inches from its face. It was completely helpless. However, Fugaku's frown turned to a smile when the little boy looked up at him. Black Uchiha eyes looked back into black Uchiha eyes.

Fugaku took the infant into his arms, looking at the youngest of the Uchiha clan. Older Uchiha than this child still had their blue eyes. This three-day-old child had eyes that were already black. His first words to his wife showed no concern for her well being, or even the child. They were simply needed information to calculate the child's power. "When did his eyes change?"

Mikoto sat up in the bed, keeping an eye on her young infant in his father's arms. "When he was born. The doctor was surprised. They checked with lights to make sure." Hopefully, that answer would please the man. She did not see how anyone could not be pleased with that answer.

He looked at the child. "He will be fast, like the wind." Yes, Fugaku was pleased. This had been the first Uchiha to be born with black eyes in at least four decades, possibly longer. His child would be strong and fast and a truly good heir to the clan when that time came. His mind thought of what to name the child. He would be as strong as the wind. He would be deadly. He would be able to strike his enemies with a speed making him as invisible as the wind. Fugaku nodded, he knew this child's name. He would be like the mythical weasel riding the harsh wind to draw blood unseen. "Itachi. His name will be Itachi. Uchiha Itachi."

If Fugaku had known then how many times he would have to explain why he named his eldest child after a weasel, he probably would have chosen a different name. The next day, Itachi and his mother returned home to the clan compound. Everyone was talking about the young male heir born with already black eyes. Fugaku had been two months old when his eyes changed, and his father had been three months old. Often Uchiha eyes did not change until six or seven months. The reason Mikoto had been chosen as a wife by the clan for Fugaku was that hers had changed when she was only six weeks. No one had expected Itachi to be born with the black Uchiha eyes.

Once the child was home, his father almost instantly forgot him though. Itachi's grandmother and the old woman's sisters were often at the house though, helping Mikoto take care of the young infant. For the first six months of his life, Itachi rarely saw his father. Relations with Rock country were rapidly deteriorating so the police force was extremely busy making sure that there were not any spies for Rock country within the walls of Konoha. Fugaku would often not get home until near midnight, long after the child was asleep, and then would leave again early in the morning.

Everyone in the clan was busy. The impending war would involve many of the Uchiha clan. As one of the most important clans in the village, they would be called upon to defend her. As Itachi was learning to walk and the new year was welcomed, war loomed ,and the young heir was taking his first steps -- early as he had done everything else.

By the time Itachi was one, his father had given him his first Kunai, no matter what the child's mother thought of that. Instead of stuffed animals like other children his age, Itachi had little practice dummies with the vitals marked in clear red. His birthday was not seen as a time to celebrate the previous year, but as a mark to begin Itachi's formal training. Little pudgy toddler legs were soon being taught ancient moves from Kata handed down through generations. Clumsy fingers learned to grip deadly weapons. While Itachi's body was that of a young toddler and his movements were awkward as he learned to move his body how his father wanted, his eyes took in everything. The eyes were those of a Uchiha – ever observant and calculating.

Soon the young heir was on the level of three year olds, even though he was not even halfway to his next birthday. By the time he saw his second year, the war with Rock was well underway. The village was subdued that summer. Many shinobi had gone to battle and many of them would never return. The third Hokage was preparing to step aside so that the forth could take his place, but the war was delaying that. One of Itachi's cousins was being trained directly by the forth. When Obito obtained his chuunin rank, Itachi was three and had lost most of his clumsiness. There was talk of Itachi and his cousin Shisui entering the academy when they were four.

There was a celebration thrown for Obito and Itachi, and Mikoto attended with Itachi dressed formally. A black Kimono with Hakama and Haori, miniature versions of what he would have to wear as a clan leader. The only difference was that Itachi was not yet old enough to have the Uchiha fan symbol on his garments. Obito's sensei, the future forth, was in attendance, as were the rest of Obito's team. The female medic nin was ignored by Itachi, but his eyes could not stop watching either Obito's male teammate or his sensei. The man was brash and loud and so bright. In a sea of pale skin, black clothes, black eyes and black hair, the bright blue eyes and blond hair stood out. In contrast to the loud and outgoing nature of the sensei, the quiet silver haired boy next to Obito seemed even more out of place.

Itachi could tell that child was dangerous. The silver haired one was eight years older than he was, and Itachi knew he was outclassed. It was that night, at Obito's chuunin party, that Itachi decided he needed to train even harder. His father had told him many times how all other clans were threats to the Uchiha and nothing was more important than protecting the Uchiha clan. At all costs, the Uchiha must be the strongest. That Hatake child was strong. Itachi decided he would do everything possible to surpass the silver haired child. He would work even harder and get into the academy next year. If he was strong, the clan was strong. The clan had to be strong.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

Thank you to Chibinecco for the Beta, and Beachlass and Mija for reading this as it was posted in rough draft to my LJ

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 1 -_

Uchiha Itachi was one of the youngest children ever admitted to the Konoha Ninja academy. He was only four years old when he first stepped through those doors. His older cousin, Shisui, was almost five when they both started at the academy. It was wartime though, and many of the other children were only five or six. The two Uchiha, however, were near unstoppable. They were quick. They were smart. They were deadly. In a clan known for stand out academy students, they were even more skilled and noticeable.

Shuriken, Kunai, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu … there was nothing the two seemed incapable of. The following spring, Itachi was four still and Shisui had turned five. The war was nearing its end and more and more of the Shinobi could be found around the village. With the war going well and victory seeming certain, spirits were up and the members of the Uchiha clan were looking forward to the coming peace. The clan was strong. Fugaku had taken control of the clan from his father. The work the police force had done to maintain the security within the village had directly related to the expected victory.

It was a Friday, and classes were out for the rest of the day. Itachi and Shisui snuck off on their own. They didn't have to train today. Tonight there was a party in the village, a celebration of a major battle being won in the war. The future Forth Hokage was being honored at a festival. Itachi had told his parents that he was going to be practicing after school, but in a rare moment of unsupervised time, he snuck off through the woods near Konoha. Last night, he had overheard his cousin Obito saying where his team was going to be practicing the next day.

Sneaking through the forest near Konoha, the two boys quickly reached the practice field where the future Forth was training his three young chuunin. The two Uchiha faded into the shadows of the trees. Their small sizes aiding them in avoiding notice. Dark, observant eyes watched Konoha's Yellow Flash lead his chuunin students through movements. The man flitting from student to student by using his body flicker technique. While Shisui was watching the older man, Itachi was watching the moody silver haired older child. Hatake Kakashi. The boy was good. He was supposed to be the genius of the Hatake clan. However, no one spoke of that clan anymore after what Kakashi's father had done. Well, no one spoke of it openly. Itachi's father often spoke of it in private. He spoke of the shame that had befallen a once noble clan. For some reason Fugaku seemed to blame the Hyuuga clan. Then again, even Itachi had noticed that his father often blamed the Hyuuga for things.

Shisui didn't notice Itachi watching the Hatake child, his own interest was fixated on their blond sensei. Itachi, on the other hand, watched how exact the movements of Kakashi were. They reminded the small boy of his father's movements. As if they anticipated the movements of an opponent. As if the boy had Uchiha eyes. Calculations like that were something he had not seen outside his own clan. The boy would be a worthy opponent someday. However for how, they had to return to the Uchiha compound to get ready for the festival. Itachi had a plan though. He would be five in just a few more months. He would try and prove to his father that he deserved to wear the Uchiha crest. He would perform a fire jutsu and prove to his father that he was worthy.

The two boys snuck back to the Uchiha compound, no one noticing the two small, dark shadows entering the walls of the Uchiha district. Itachi knew he could find his father near the pond at this hour of the day. Darting through the reeds, he didn't even startle a single crane. As he approached the edge of the large pond, he saw his father on the other side. Every day, his father walked that path before returning home.

Itachi's hands flew through the hand signs, channeling his chakra to his mouth as he held the tiger sign near his lips, "Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" As he exhaled, the chakra channeled into fire. The water of the pond danced orange and red as the flame reflected off it's cool surface. Red eyes flashed on the other side and within seconds of the Jutsu's release, Itachi's father was in front of him. For the first time in Itachi's life, he saw something unfamiliar in those eyes. For once, his father was looking at him with pride.

For the first time, Itachi walked back to his house with his father. The elder Uchiha held his young son's hand as he entered the house. A smile graced the man's face. Four years old and his son had mastered the Katon. How could he not be proud? Suddenly Itachi was the center of attention. His mother smiling and kissing his forehead. His father smiling as he looked at his son proudly. An Aunt trying to figure out how to alter a Haori coat so that it would fit the small child's frame. He was the youngest to be able to wear the Uchiha fan in a very long time, and his family had every intention of him wearing it to the festival that night.

As the sun set, he walked with his father and mother to the festival. Soon they would have a new Hokage. The war was in its final days, and people were starting to anticipate a peace treaty. The night didn't seem as if it was for the Fourth; instead, it seemed to be for a small Uchiha. The Uchiha clan was strong, and nearly all the members were shinobi or retired shinobi, even more so than the Hyuuga. The fact that Fugaku's four-year-old son had the Uchiha fan on his back was not unnoticed.

Itachi ignored the fuss over him. He had his father's approval, and that was all that mattered to him. He was with his father when they met the future Forth again. The man's three person team was with him as well. Itachi did not even mind his cousin Obito ruffling his hair. However, when his idiot cousin told him he looked like a girl, the young boy bristled at the insult. The silver haired team member simply shrugged at Obito and muttered, "It looks fine."

Itachi ignored the remarks from Obito and the name-calling of 'Ita-chan'. It did not bother him. The Hatake child had said it was fine. He decided that he would not cut it and let it grow. What did Obito know anyways? The Hatake child always beat his cousin in combat anyways. Better to listen to the stronger teammate rather than the weaker one.

Itachi was still near ecstatic from the attention the silver haired boy had given him. As he walked home with his father, nothing could bring down his mood. He had preformed the Katon that proved he was a true member of the Uchiha clan. He had gained his father's attention. He had been praised by the clan. Most importantly, the silver haired teammate of his cousin had noticed him.

When he got back to his room in the house, everything came crashing down. His father walked him back to his room before helping him out of the ceremonial clothes. His pride at his father's attention quickly turned to shame as the older Uchiha explained he was a man now; and as man, he had responsibilities to his clan and his clan head.

It seemed like that night lasted forever. When his father finally left the room, Itachi was hiding under the covers of his futon. The world felt wrong. He felt dirty and used. He did not want to sleep that night. He did not want to go to the academy the next morning. He did not want the sun to rise. He just wanted the world to stop, so he could stay hidden there for the rest of time.

At some point that night, Itachi did fall into a fitful sleep. He woke to his mother entering the room, carrying a bowl of water and a washcloth. Without a word, she cleaned him up. Washing away all evidence of what had happened, she carefully tended to him. When he looked into her eyes, he expected to see something. He expected anger or disgust or some protective emotion like his mother should have. He saw other kids when they were picked up at the academy, children older than him, and they had parents concerned about kunai scratches, and parents who congratulated them on a good grade. He did not see any of that in his mother's eyes. Instead, she simply dressed him for the academy that day.

After his mother left his room without a word, a servant brought Itachi his breakfast, all without a word. He knew the servant knew, but the woman was a Uchiha and wouldn't say anything. Everywhere he looked that day there were only Uchiha. Before he hadn't noticed, any Uchiha that married outside of the clan, lived outside of the Uchiha compound. Only Uchiha lived there. Uchiha police patrolled the streets. Uchiha ran the stores. Uchiha built the houses. Everywhere he looked, dark hair and dark eyes stared back at him.

Maybe it was his imagination as he walked to the academy that day, but it seemed all those dark eyes were watching him. Watching to see what he would do. What would he say? He was a Uchiha though, and simply walked to the academy without a word. That day Itachi realized why his clan was so closed and so quiet. They all had a secret that could not be told. It all made sense. The Uchiha men who divorced their non-clan wives to move back to the compound with their children. The woman did the same thing. Uchiha eyes were too observant. Everyone knew. It all made sense. Before his fifth birthday, Itachi realized he would be head of a clan of monsters. His family was not what chased away the monsters in the night – they were the monsters.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 2 -_

Itachi spent the rest of the year at the academy keeping to himself. He heard everyone talking of course. People remarked on how well he was doing at his studies. They talked about how he was a true Uchiha to be able to master jutsu at such a young age. He overheard his academy teacher talking about how wonderful it was that the Uchiha clan had produced such a strong heir and with the impending victory in the war how strong Konoha was looking.

Itachi started acting more 'like a Uchiha' -- if only the outside world knew why that was. He secluded himself. He did not interact with other students who were not in the clan. In fact, the only person at the academy that he spoke to was his cousin Shisui. He never said anything about what was happening at home though. He knew he did not have to. They were both Uchiha. While others out side of the clan envied their eyes, Itachi knew the curse of those eyes. You noticed everything. He could not walk down the street without seeing averted glances and whispered conversations, the slight body language of people lying to one another. He could not stop noticing people with an old injury. People who could not meet the glances of others. Those who were shoved to the fringes of Konoha society. He could see everything. Suspicious glances a girlfriend gave her boyfriend. The lack of trust a man looked at a woman with. He knew then why his clan was in charge of the police forces. They knew the sins of the village.

Shortly after that, Itachi started to travel exclusively by rooftops in order to avoid people. When that no longer was enough, he learned how to get from the academy to his favorite practice spot with his eyes closed. Using only his other senses, he would get away from all those people. In school, he stared only straight ahead. He closed his eyes. He took to growing his bangs over his eyes. Anything to help him not see the looks people gave each other.

Itachi found himself hiding more and more often using the excuse of training to stay away from everyone. It did not save him from having to go home at night. It did save him from the looks from the rest of the clan. It saved him from seeing how they glanced away as he walked down the street.

It was the Autumn when Itachi was five that he was woken in the middle of the night. People were suddenly in the house and hushed voices could be heard. He slid his door open to creep through the dark crack. Soundlessly he walked down the corridor, the sounds of adult voices guiding him towards the kitchen. No servants were awake, his mother and one of his uncles were sitting at the table. His father was pacing in front of the window, eyes glancing out into the pitch-blackness of the summer night.

Itachi remained quiet, listening as the adults discussed his cousin Obito. It was several minutes before Itachi realized they were talking about the dead. His cousin was dead at the age of thirteen. Itachi knew that Obito and his team were fighting in the war, but it was supposed to be nearly done by now. Fire victory was almost certain; he didn't understand how such a thing could have happened.

Huddling in the cold hallway, Itachi listened as the adults repeated rumors of what had happened. They were blaming it on the Hatake child. Something about how Obito had gone alone to rescue their third teammate. Itachi was not sure of the details; the adults did not seem sure either. All they were sure of was that something horrible for the clan had happened. At first Itachi believed that they were upset over Obito's death. Unlike many Uchiha, the boy had been outgoing, but he had also been a good shinobi. Maybe not as quick as other members of the clan, but not a disgrace to the clan either.

Soon it became clear; the adults did not care about Obito. They only cared about his eyes, actually one of his eyes. Itachi had not known transplanting an eye was possible, but evidently was it not only possible, but Obito had managed to activate his Sharingan. A two-toma Sharingan eye had been implanted into a non-Uchiha. Somehow, the medic-nin of the team had transferred Obito's eye to replace a destroyed eye in the Hatake boy.

Itachi snuck back down the corridor, away from the whispered conversation. He wanted to know the truth, and the only place to find the truth would be at the hospital where the

only remaining Hatake was recovering. Not bothering to change from his black sleeping clothes, he disappeared through the window of his bedroom. Without a sound, the young child jumped from rooftop to rooftop. Even at his age, he had mastered the gentle application of chakra to move across the slippery and uneven surfaces without a single noise.

A small pale and black shadow left the Uchiha district and passed across rooftops towards the large central area of Konohagakure. The hospital was one of the only buildings with lights on at this time of night. Itachi traveled around the building, completely unseen. Dark eyes glanced from window to window, seeking out the person he was looking for. He quickly found his way to a near deserted corridor, dark and quiet to aid the recovering boy. He saw the blond haired future Hokage leave with a girl of about thirteen. Itachi's eyes narrowed, that was the girl who was the medic-nin on that team. She was the one whose hands performed the surgery.

As if he were invisible, he slipped into the quiet hospital room. The silver-haired Hatake was in the hospital bed. Pure black eyes darted to the clipboard on the bed, the information on Hatake Kakashi was easily read. The prognosis was good, except for the unknown of the Sharingan eye. Evidently, it was in its activated state and seemed unable to be deactivated. The chakra drain and not the surgery was what had him confined to a hospital bed.

Itachi stood by the bedside, looking down at the silver hair. He carefully examined the unconscious shinobi; he could not yet activate his own Sharingan. He wished he could, to see if he could tell anything else about the unconscious one. Itachi knew his clan was evil. He knew it from the bottom of his heart. What he did not know was if Kakashi was also evil. Did possessing the Sharingan make a person evil, or was it something else. If Hatake Kakashi was not evil, then there was a chance for Itachi. It was a small chance, but maybe he would be able to change destiny and not become like the rest of his clan. If it was not the Sharingan, then he was not necessarily a monster. This unconscious young man held the answers that Itachi needed, but there was no way yet to obtain them.

He walked over to the window, his small five-year-old body not casting much of a shadow. Even in a village of ninja, no one expected much of a child as small as he was. Sliding open the window, he threw himself through it, landing without a sound on the rooftop several yard away. He had to get back to his bedroom before anyone knew he was gone. Once again he raced across the rooftops, his dexterity and skill that of a child much older. He raced across the wall to the Uchiha district and in though his opened bedroom window. He had not been in bed long when the door to his room slid open just enough to let his father in. The man never commented on Itachi's still cold hands and feet though.

The funeral for Obito happened without any additional drama. Another Uchiha was added to the memorial stone already littered with the bravest of the clan. Hatake Kakashi had attended the service, but Itachi had already known that would be the case. He had seen him the night before when he was deciding what to wear. Whenever the Hatake boy was in town, Itachi made it a point to observe him. He had to discover if the Sharingan eye had made him evil.

After that, Itachi grew bolder, sneaking out more and more either before his father visited him or after wards. Most often afterwards, it gave him something to look forward to when he wanted to be anywhere but in his room. He found an escape from his family by running across the rooftops at night and observing the Hatake boy. At night, in the moonlight, he practiced his weapons skills. He advanced grades in the academy, set to be one of the youngest graduates ever. That did not matter. The practice and long hours were simply to avoid his father. To avoid the academy teachers who remarked how wonderful it was for a father to take such interest in his son's progress. Then his world came tumbling down. His mother was pregnant again. He would have a sibling. Would the infant also be as evil as the rest of the clan, or did the child have a chance?


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 3 -_

Winter passed quickly for Itachi. The war had ended and Fugaku spent most of his time with either police matters or clan matters. He was now the official head of the Uchiha clan. His second child would be born shortly and his eldest son was proving to be one of the most talented members in the history of the Uchiha clan. He spent little time with Itachi though.

As the birth of his sibling neared, Itachi was torn between joy and despair. He had been mostly left alone for several months. He had spent nights training and days at the academy and every other free hour training with his cousin Shisui. This spring they were not going to let him take the graduation test, saying six was too young; however, they were going to let him take the test next year. One more year and he would be a true shinobi and assigned to a team and assigned to missions. Itachi spent his nights hoping they would be missions far away from his village and far from his family.

When his little brother was born, Itachi was the last in the house to see the boy. His father had hurried to the house when he was informed another son was born. This time Itachi's mother named the child. Uchiha Sasuke named for the famous hero of legends. Such an important name, but the child himself did not live up to it. When Fugaku saw blue eyes looking back at him, he stormed out of the room. He had expected another infant with black eyes like his eldest son. No one would persuade him to take another look at the child until those eyes turned to black. Rational arguments that nearly every Uchiha, including himself, were born with blue eyes didn't appease the man who had such high hopes for his second son.

When Itachi first saw Sasuke, the infant was already the disappointment of the clan. The little boy with his dark hair and deep blue eyes did not know this though. He was six and a half pounds of content in his mother's arms. His mother was surprised that Itachi wanted to hold the infant boy. The elder brother had never shown any interest in the pregnancy or any other infant born to the clan. As Sasuke's blue eyes struggled to focus on his brother's black eyes, Itachi smiled. The child was not evil. The child was not a monster. It was then that Itachi promised his little brother to keep him safe. Their mother smiled at the rare show of affection from the stoic older brother; however, if she had known what he intended to keep his brother safe from, she would have pulled her infant son from the elder brother's grasp.

Itachi's last year of the academy started when he was six. He could never have imagined that half of that year they would not have classes as the village was rebuilt. Then again, no one could have imagined that one beautiful October day a demon would descend upon them. In such a short time, so many people lost their lives. Seventeen members of the Uchiha clan never returned from the battle. The forth Hokage sacrificed himself to save the village. Large expanses of the village were destroyed; however, the Uchiha district escaped relatively unharmed. Everyone had to work extra to rebuild the village though. Itachi would return late at night from rebuilding efforts to see his mother sitting with the months old Sasuke.

Every night when Itachi got home he would look into his infant brother's eyes. Yes, they had darkened to black and yes, he could now focus and properly see. He even had the observant look that Uchiha developed so early. What Itachi did not see was any sign of evil. There was no malice yet in that young heart. What he did see there instead was something that worried him more. When he looked into his brother's eyes, what he saw was trust. Trust was something that would be betrayed. Trust meant his brother could and would be hurt. It was still too early to do anything about his little brother, no way yet to get rid of that trust. But someday, Itachi knew that trust would be destroyed. He would be the one to destroy it though in order to make his brother stronger. He would save his bother from what happened to him.

Shortly after new years, the academy reopened. The village still had a lot of damage to it, but all critical areas had been reopened. Hundreds had died in the Demon fox attack, but life had returned to a semblance of normal. Merchants sold their goods in the market. Children once again ran through the streets. The Uchiha compound was still made up entirely of pale, dark haired Uchihas. When police patrolled, they were Uchiha. When children walked through the streets, they were Uchiha. Outsiders rarely ventured within those walls. The red and white fan decorated everything, as if the clan had to mark its possessions – the walls, the buildings and the people. The mark which Itachi had once looked upon with pride as he saw it on the backs of the members of the clan, now filled him with nothing but dread. Everywhere he looked, the Uchiha presence was overwhelming.

Soon, it was academy graduation, the first class to graduate after the demon fox attack. The Third was Hokage again and at the graduation, there was a commemoration ceremony for the Forth. Later, Itachi could not have told you what happened in the ceremony. All he was watching was the remnants of the forth's old team that he trained, both now promoted to jônin. The female medic-nin seemed overly emotional; however, Hatake Kakashi remained stoic beside her -- staring straight ahead at the class of children graduating. In times of peace, the graduating class would have been nearly the same age as the two young Jônin in their ceremonial outfits. However, this may be peace now, the years of war and the demon fox attack had depleted the shinobi forces to the point where Itachi was being allowed to graduate at the age of seven. Shisui was only a year older and graduating at eight. Not a single graduate in the class was older than eleven, and that particular student had been held back a year.

Young children were put into groups and assigned to jônin instructors. Itachi was paired with a young female Inuzuka and a male ninja from the Shiranui clan. Both of them were older than him, the girl was eight and the boy was nine. Neither were as capable as Itachi. Their Jônin-sensei was a relative unknown. With so many kids graduating and so many shinobi having been lost in recent years, everyone who could be tasked as a jônin sensei was. The man was from a relatively unknown clan by the name of Morino. Morino Ibiki led them through their initial simple missions, mostly rebuilding assignments since so much of Konoha was still in ruins from the demon fox.

After a few months, they were all allowed to start going on real missions. Their first mission was to the Land of Thunder. It was just a scroll delivery, although it was ranked B just because they would be traveling through some rough country. Rumors of a criminal organization starting to form in the area had been reaching back to Konoha, so the price of the mission was raised and the rank was pushed up to B; however, no one really thought it was truly a B class mission. The three Genin and their Jônin instructor struck off in the autumn rain. It would be cold by the time they reached as far north as Thunder country.

Fours days of the Genin traveling at their fastest, which admittedly was not as fast as Itachi could have traveled and they were finally approaching the Fire country border. Morino-sensei ordered them to pause and set camp as the sun set. The three genin were unused to traveling that far. The watch was quickly set and Itachi and the Inuzuka went to sleep as soon as rations were eaten. They were close enough to the border that their sensei was not allowing a fire, but far enough away that it was considered safe enough to run a single watch.

Itachi was the last watch of the night. The boy from the Shiranui clan had had the watch directly before him. As soon as he woke up for his watch, he knew something was wrong. A quick glance at the other boy and he knew his teammate was clueless about the danger they were in. The Inuzuka and her dog had not noticed either. His sensei was also asleep in his bedroll.

Making it seem like nothing more than a miss-step caused by having just woken up, Itachi placed one barefoot on a twig, snapping the dry piece of wood. Without even waiting for their sensei to start moving, and he knew he noise woke the man since Itachi never make a rookie mistake like stepping on a dried twig, eight kunai were in Itachi's fingers and released into the under growth before his teammate even realized that he had let the enemy sneak up on them during his watch.

Morino-sensei was in action instantly as well. The fight was over in just a few minutes. In the aftermath, Itachi looked around. His sensei had taken out two of the four enemies. The other two had fallen by Itachi's own hands. The Inuzuka and her dog had not even been able to get out of their bedroll before the fight was over. The worst was that the boy who had been on watch had not even touched a single one of his weapons. The boy had frozen in place, unable to do anything as the four enemies had attacked their campsite. Not only had he not sensed them approaching, but he had failed to aid in the fight.

Leaving Itachi in charge of the campsite, Morino-sensei took that boy for a walk in the nearby woods. Itachi could only assume it was to yell at him for how much of a failure that he had turned into and how he endangered his teammates. The young Uchiha sat by the fire, his senses on alert to any more danger. However, with their sensei awake it was unlikely that anyone could possibly get near them. The Inuzuka girl looked startled as she gazed over at Itachi, and finally she spoke. "You were amazing."

She had never had anything nice to say to him before on their missions. Then again, previous missions had all been physical labor, and as the youngest and smallest of the team, Itachi had been at a disadvantage on those types of assignments. Itachi looked away from her. "I am a Uchiha. It is expected." Walking away from her, he looked off into the darkness of the forest. It would be another two hours before the sun would rise. The girl became quiet, then crawled back into her blankets. Itachi could tell this time she was not sleeping as deeply. Maybe she had learned from her mistake; however, Itachi had no confidence in any member of his team. He simply made the decision that he would need to be more careful in order to survive his genin team since they seemed to be more a hindrance than a help to his development.

He had to get stronger. He had a little brother to protect. To do that, he had to develop his Sharingan. Of course, he still had five years before anyone would expect that of him, but Itachi was determined to do it much sooner. He did not have time to wait. Every day his brother got older and every day that Itachi was away but his sibling in greater danger. He did not know what he would do yet, but passing his Chuunin exam and obtaining the Sharingan were crucial steps. Gazing back to the fire, he made the resolution not to let his team slow him down.


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

Beta Info: I don't have a Beta. I'd love to have one, but I don't

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 4 -_

The mission to Lighting country went without incident after the attack. They were always on double shifts for watch after that. The Shiranui boy had grown quiet and actually seemed to be working on developing his abilities. The Inuzuka girl had become more alert. By the time they returned to the village, Itachi was actually beginning to think that his teammates could prove useful. They were both older than him, and he believed they should be more advanced, but as his father reminded him on nights when he was back in the village – he was a Uchiha.

His teammates were not Uchiha and as such not held to the same standards. Itachi lay on his futon at night, thinking of the differences between him and his teammates. Even in his son's room, Fugato's breathing while asleep proved how alert he actually was. Itachi could not get up and slip out of his window on nights when his father remained in his room. He could only gaze longingly at the window. He wanted to slip out into the night and feel the moonlight on his skin. He wanted to dart across the rooftops and race his shadow. He wanted to slip through shadows until he could see the window of the silver haired boy's apartment. He needed to find a way to observe Hatake Kakashi closer.

Months went by like that. When Itachi was on a mission, he was free from his father's attentions. However, when he was gone there was no one to assure that his brother was safe. As long as Sasuke was unable to do the clan's preferred fire jutsu, the boy was safe. It was only once he was able to master that attack that the clan would consider him an adult. As long as Sasuke was considered nothing but Fugato's youngest son and still a child, the boy was safe – even with Itachi away. However, the older boy could not get all the fear for his brother out of his mind.

Sitting high in a tree as he kept watch over the rest of the group, he glanced across the clearing at the other boy on watch. This was an A ranked mission and Itachi was now eight. Two teams of genin and their instructors had been sent on this escort mission. Itachi did not even know who the man they were escorting was, it was considered too dangerous for even the genin on the two teams to know that. Itachi's shift was the only watch shift where both jônin slept. Evidently, two sets of Uchiha eyes were considered enough to watch the group.

Shisui's eyes looked back at Itachi from across the clearing. Without even moving a leaf to show he had changed positions, Shisui appeared next to Itachi. The two boys were near carbon copies of each other. Both had the pale skin and dark hair of the clan and both had the pitch black eyes. Shisui was a year older than Itachi, but the two had been together since their first day of the Academy. The two cousins sat in silence, making sure their teammates were safe on their watch.

The Uchiha were always known as a quiet clan. What use was small talk when how a person was truly doing could be learned from a quick glance at their body language? Shisui knew something was bothering Itachi. The slightest changes in the younger boy's posture and breathing were instantly seen by the older Uchiha's eyes. Itachi knew this as well. He knew how much those eyes could tell a person. He knew that everyone in the clan knew what the rest were up to. Uchiha eyes saw too much for any of them to ever claim ignorance.

Finally, Itachi spoke. "Do you ever wish that you had not been born a Uchiha?" His voice was soft and devoid of emotion as he let his innermost thoughts escape. Shisui was his closest friend, if they were friends. Itachi really did not know if he had a friend, but if he did, Shisui was that person.

The elder Uchiha shook his head, "No." His body positioning showed that he knew there was much more to that question. To be a Uchiha meant to be a successful Shinobi. Even the members of the clan that never activated their Sharingan still had the Uchiha eyes and were much more observant than any one outside the clan with the possible exception of the Hyuuga clan.

Itachi frowned. He had thought maybe someone else felt the ambivalence towards the clan that he did. He thought maybe someone else shared his feelings. If anyone did, it would have been Shisui. He only had one more question to ask. It did not seem strange to the boy that his inner turmoil could be express completely in two small questions. "Do you ever wish you could change the clan?"

Shisui looked at Itachi. A quick pained look flashing across the face of the older boy. They knew they were talking about something that should never be mentioned, especially near people that were not in the clan. It would be bad enough to talk of this inside the walls of the Uchiha compound; however, to talk about this out in the open away from the clan struck the elder boy as wrong. He shook his head. "The clan is as it always has been. We are strong, why would you want to change that?"

Itachi looked away. He knew his cousin knew exactly why he thought the clan should be changed. He was not blind, he knew that his cousin carried the same burden that he did. The tenseness in the shoulders, the slight changes in his cousin's pulse, none of that could be hidden from the Uchiha eyes, and Itachi's eyes were as sharp as any member of the clan's. "You know why." Yes, he knew Shisui knew why. He knew the other boy was in the same position as he was, except without a younger sibling to make it more difficult.

"Itachi, nothing can be done." The words were said with finality. His cousin had already thought this through, perhaps more completely than Itachi had. Shisui had always been a strategist. A natural ability to think ahead and balance what was possible with what was not possible. Combined with the Uchiha ability to assess situations and the elder Uchiha's deductive abilities were often in high demand on missions. His team knew they were often assigned for prime assignments simply because they had Uchiha Shisui on their team.

Itachi could not accept that assessment though. He shook his head, a brief flare of emotion showing in his eyes. "Something must be able to be changed." His mind had already run through all the options. Itachi had not thought of anything that would work and his cousin gave voice to exactly why.

"The clan is the police, cousin. They are the positions of power that would prove or disprove your accusations. The clan is too strong to be over thrown by a single boy." With that, nearly all hope that Itachi had of being able to change his clan disappeared. He had thought that it would be the two of them against the clan. Shisui never misspoke on such things. When he said a single boy, that is all his calculations involved. One boy. Itachi would face it alone, and the elder had determined it was futile. He would not help Itachi.

They fell into silence again. Itachi could not go to the police. Everyone in the police with very few exceptions was a Uchiha, and those that weren't Uchiha reported to Uchiha. Likewise, the hospital was not a possibility. Shisui was right. The doctors that would assess the truth of such an accusation were also Uchiha. The clan was too strong. They were everywhere, in the positions of power that would make their terrible secret remain a secret for as long as the clan was strong.

Itachi even ruled out being able to go to the Hokage. With how often the third visited his father and the rest of the Uchiha council for tea and social occasions, that man could not be trusted either. The Uchiha were essential to the security of the village. They were the eyes and ears of Konoha. Uchiha were everywhere. Several Uchiha were in the ANBU forces even. There was no organization with power in Konoha that Itachi's clan had not penetrated.

He remained quiet for the rest of his watch. Although Shisui remained in the tree with him, the two boys did not say another word. Both were too busy thinking. One trying to decide what his rash little cousin would do. The other trying to determine what flaw lay in the elder's logic. Itachi could not accept that nothing could be done. If nothing was done, his brother would end up in the same position Itachi was, and he could not allow that. He would do whatever it took to keep Sasuke safe.

The only person that Itachi thought he might be able to talk to was his jônin sensei. In the time since being assigned to the man, Morino-sensei had been nothing but fair to the Itachi. Even when the genin had been assigned to the physical labor tasks that the two older team members had been much better at, Morino-sensei had still encouraged Itachi. He had never mocked him or called him weak. In fact, he had been kind to all three members of the team. The man was fair and responsible and perhaps, Itachi could trust him.

He would get his sensei alone so he could start to assess how much he could trust the man in this subject. Maybe a way to save his brother could be thought of. His train of thought was abrupt halted as both Uchiha drew weapons and moved into action. Only the slightest change in the shadows had alerted them of the attack. Kunai were thrown to land next to each of their Jônin-sensei. Soon the battle would be joined, but for the first few hectic moments, it was the two Uchiha against what turned out to be twelve missing-nin. After the recent shinobi wars, the number of missing nin had increased in a near population explosion. The result was that no shinobi village had the resources to track down their own missing-nin and the bingo books were full to over flowing.

Without pause, twin shadows of death leapt across the shadowed landscape. Kunai flew. Fire Jutsu lit the forest. The battle was joined by the rest of their teams. The missing-nin were particularly strong though. The Konoha forces were nothing more than two jônin and six genin, even if two of those genin were Uchiha. The odds were against them and soon the battle fell against them as well. An Earth jutsu took out the young Itachi, knocking him unconscious.

When Itachi awoke, the battle was still in its final stages and they were loosing. The Inuzuka's dog lay dead not far from where Itachi had fallen, and her lifeless corpse was in pieces not far from her dog. The Shiranui boy was badly burnt and unconscious at the base of a tree. Itachi saw the missing-nin preparing to make their escape with not only the man their mission had been to escort, but also with his jônin-sensei. The man Itachi had decided to confide in.

Black eyes widened in rage. This was not happening. They could not lose. He was the heir of the Uchiha clan and this would not happen. No more teammates would die. His mission would not fail. His sensei would not be abducted under his nose. Suddenly the world became clearer as Itachi focused on his enemy. Rushing forward with nothing but a kunai, he moved quicker than he ever had before. Two throats were cut before the enemy nin had even realized the small genin was not dead. Another fell before he could form the seals for a jutsu. When a forth fell after a hand-to-hand fight that seemed to move in slow motion, Itachi realized the rest of the enemy had escaped.

His jônin-sensei was gone. The man they were escorting was gone. The only survivors of the battle were Shisui's jônin-sensei, who was badly injured and unconscious, the two Uchiha, and the genin from the Shiranui Clan. Both of Shisui's teammates and the Inuzuka lay dead. There was nothing more they could do. By the time Itachi had destroyed the bodies and searched the corpses of the enemy, Shisui's jônin sensei was regaining consciousness. A message was sent for aid. There was no way they could get themselves back to Konoha in any reasonable amount of time.

Itachi would be reassigned to a different team. The Shiranui boy would never be a shinobi for another day in his life. His injuries were too much. Shisui's jônin sensei and Shisui were assigned two fresh graduates to reform their team. Itachi was the talk of the mission though. If he had not done what he had, both teams would have been wiped out. The missing nin were believed to be working for a criminal organization known as the Akatsuki. They were strong and tough. My all accounts the teams should have been killed down to the last man. However, no one had anticipated that Itachi would be able to fully develop his Sharingan in one instant of battle at the tender age of eight. He was the youngest Uchiha in a very long time to achieve that.

Everyone spoke of how amazing it was and how proud the clan must be. Being in that hospital was like the nightmare of the academy all over again. It was horrible to hear the whispers of how everyone thought so highly of his clan. The mutterings of how proud his father must be to have such a capable son. Every word was like a kunai in his side. Deeper and deeper they pierced him until he did not think he could take it any more. He had to endure though. He had to be strong so he could save his little brother. He had to believe that he could save the innocent child. He would not let Sasuke fall victim.


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

I don't have a Beta right now. If this changes, this note will change

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 5 -_

Itachi spent several weeks in the hospital. His chakra had been depleted from the early activation of his Sharingan as well as the damage inflicted by the enemy Nin. He had over done it in the battle, and even though he was a prodigy, his chakra reserve were not those of an adult. He had the chakra of an eight year old, albeit a powerful eight year old. The extended time he has used his fully activated Sharingan, combined with the Jutsus he had used caused a near fatal chakra depletion. He had damaged all of his chakra channels and that made healing his physical wounds all the harder.

No one could fault him for risking his life like that. He may have been betting his life by overdoing it, but if he had not, his death was assured. Under less life threatening circumstances, his actions would have been foolhardy, but as it was, they were heroic. The Third visited him in his hospital bed, his old academy instructors, even a great aunt of his, Uchiha Uruchi brought him some flowers from the Yamanaka flower shop. He did not want flowers. He did not want visitors. He simply wanted to get better and get out of there. He wanted to heal. He did not have time to be side lined for weeks healing from broken bones and wounds. He did not have time to rest while his chakra channels healed. He needed to get stronger. He needed to find a way to escape this Uchiha curse. He needed to find a way of saving his brother from the same thing he was going through. If he could not save the clan, he would at least save Sasuke.

His father had been on a mission when he was bought back by the recovery team. Itachi had been in the hospital for three days before Fugaku showed up. The man strode into the hospital room as if he had every right to be there. Of course, no one stopped him. The man was the clan leader of the Uchiha in addition to being Itachi's own father. The staff probably thought that it was a wonderful thing for the man to be visiting his heroic, injured son.

When the door closed, the public façade the man wore disappeared. He walked straight to Itachi and grabbed him by the chin. "Activate the Sharingan." It was not a request. It was barely an order. If it was anything, it was a threat.

Itachi could not refuse his father. He knew his father knew that it was against the doctor's orders and the risks that using his eyes right then entailed. He also knew Fugaku did not care. This was clan business. He needed to know the truth of the rumors first hand. His hand remained on his son's chin as the pale boy's eyes changed in an instant from pitch black to vibrant red.

Itachi did not flinch. He could not flinch. He could not let this man know how repulsed he was. He could see so much though. As Fugaku looked into his son's eyes, checking the toma of the Sharingan, first to make sure there were three in each eye and then to check that they were fully formed; Itachi saw how his father's skin flushed. He saw the slight tensing of the muscles of his father's hand as he held onto his chin. He saw the slight changes in breathing as his father pulled closer. He saw his father's pulse speeding up. He saw a thin sheen of sweat appear. He saw the blood rushing through his father's body causing a slight flush to his skin.

Itachi couldn't not see it. Every detail of his father's arousal at holding his son's chin like that. Every detail of the man's reaction to knowing his son was weak and helpless. Every detail recognized whether he wanted to or not as the Sharingan eyes discerned every detail. Itachi struggled to hide the panic, knowing now that if his father ever approached him with Sharingan activated he would be unable to hide the truth. That is how the Uchiha kept their secret. No member could lie. Everything was stripped bare and laid out before the Sharingan. Every nuance of body language. No lie detector could ever be more exacting than this new found clarity his eyes brought him. Suddenly he knew how difficult it would be to work against his clan.

He could only hope his father would not risk doing something here. All the signs he was seeing from the older man's body seemed to prove that hope false. He just had never seen his father like this as clearly before – it was no where near the first time he had seen him like this though. Before anything could happen, there was a gentle knocking at the door and Itachi's jaw was released. Before the nurse walked into the room, he had released the Sharingan. All she saw when she walked in was a concerned father with his son. Fugaku even went through the motions of asking how Itachi was doing. He accepted the offer to talk to the doctor. Finally, Itachi was left in the room alone again. He was sure his father would not visit again; however he knew when he returned home things would be worse than they had been. There was no escape that he had found. That did not mean he had stopped looking.

When he was released, he slowly made his way back to the Uchiha compound. He was still tired. He was still weak. It was too much of a risk to travel by rooftops. He walked along in a loose shirt with the Uchiha fan on the back and dark loose pants. Everything was loose on his slight frame though. He was built more like his mother than his father. His delicate frame surprised people when they learned that he was next in line the lead the Uchiha. When they learned it was for his ability, they were even more surprised. Eight years old and had already activated the Sharingan. It was almost unheard of in someone his age.

They had been talking of letting him test for chuunin at nine, however these injuries changed that. Since they were not in wartime anymore, rank increases were being done more slowly. Children were taking longer to graduate the academy, and once they graduated, they were staying at Genin level for longer. It made sense. There was no need to rush the children of the village now. It made perfect sense to use these times of peace in order to strengthen the shinobi fighting for Konoha. Taking advantage of the luxury of peacetime allowed for higher survival rates. More skills were passed from teacher to student. Even the Uchiha prodigy could use the extra time – or so it was believed.

Itachi was wiling to play along with whatever the powers that be wanted. He would continue to train in secret. He would find a way to grow stronger -- whether they aided him or not. As he walked, he heard whispers. He hated how people talked. Always it was an endless drabble about how talented Itachi was, how lucky the Uchiha clan was to have such a strong heir, how other clans could only wish for someone as worthy to be born into their own blood lines.

The pride of the Uchiha clan scowled as he walked through the fan marked gates. How he was growing to hate the symbol. There was little that Itachi did not hate in fact. His village, his clan, his family, his bloodline … everything except the little boy in the kitchen looking up at him with a small ball in his hands. Kneeling down in front of his little brother, Itachi wrapped his arms around him. He did not care that his mother walked into the room to see Itachi hugging his brother. She did not know of the silent pledge he was making in his heart to save his little brother from the fate that was waiting for the members of this clan.

Itachi had some time that day before his father would be home and want to 'talk' to him. He was too weak to practice or train, so he did something he rarely allowed. He spent the late afternoon playing with his little brother. If anyone who did not know his secret were to see the two brothers playing, they would think it was a sign of a wonderful family. The eight year old played with his little toddler brother, throwing a ball and running around and letting the little boy catch him. The yard of their house was filled with the delighted squeals of the little boy. It all came to an end though when their father came home.

Dinner at the Uchiha household was a quiet affair. After dinner, Sasuke was left with their mother and Fugaku took his soon back to Itachi's room to have a small talk about how he was becoming a more responsible member of the clan. Four hours later, Itachi was in the freezing Nakano river, trying to wash the stain from his body. Somehow, life had gotten worse. He had thought it was as bad as it could ever be, but he had been wrong. Now Itachi was involved even more in the evil of his clan. He did not think he could ever be clean again. He would not let this happen to Sasuke. No, this could never happen to his little brother. He would run away with him as a worst-case scenario if it came to that. His only peace came from the fact that as long as Sasuke could not perform the Fire Jutsu to prove he was a full Uchiha, the boy was safe. He would not let Sasuke learn to do that attack. He had to keep his little brother safe.


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

I do not have a Beta at the moment, if this changes in the future, it will be commented on.

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 6 -_

Itachi pulled himself from the freezing cold river water. His entire body shook in the cold night air, but he ignored it. Slight amounts of chakra moved to his skin, warming the near white flesh. He sat there on the riverbank, watching leaves float down past him. It was extremely early in the morning; no one would probably be out tonight. Three AM was a time even Shinobi normally slept. His eyes drifted down to the skin on his thighs and hips. It was not unmarred any more. Pale scars traced their way across him. The battle where he had nearly died had marked him for life. The remnants of kunai and jutsu were not what drew his eyes though.

His hand reached out and gently traced along red marks. Even with the cold water he had been immersed in, the bruised flesh was still swelling. Those were recent marks. Hand imprints. Marks where fingers had pressed too firmly. Those were the mark of what scared him more than any knife ever could. He had never been marked this completely before. His father had said now he was a true Uchiha now that his Sharingan activated. He did not think anything his father threatened to do to him could worry him any more. However, the man had found a new threat – one Fugaku did not even realize was a threat.

Fugaku had started to talk about Itachi's future in the clan. As an adult, he would be expected to be engaged soon. The political aspects of that were not lost on his father. Perhaps it would even benefit the clan to marry Itachi to another clan. The Hyuuga heir was female, assuming there was not a male child born to the Hyuuga head family. However, even if so, the young Hyuuga girl could still be a good choice. To marry the two clans together could prove very beneficial. When Fugaku left Itachi's room that night, plans of how the Uchiha could gain some control over the Hyuuga were still on his mind. He did not even notice his own son lying on the bed bruised and battered and appalled by what was planned.

Itachi walked next to the river, slowly pulling his clothes back on now that he was dry. It was wrong. Hyuuga Hinata was even younger than Sasuke. In addition, bringing an outsider into the Uchiha clan was dangerous -- no, that was what the clan told him. Outsiders were dangerous to the Uchiha secret. Maybe this was a way out. The Hyuuga clan was powerful and strong. Of course, they were not as powerful as the Uchiha clan, but they were very strong. Itachi did not know of the Hyuuga were strong enough. Maybe if the rest of the village joined with them. Damn his clan for being so powerful, there had to be something he could do.

Finally back in his training clothes, Itachi looked up at the moon. Then he felt it – chakra signatures racing through the trees. They were hidden, but he could feel them. Jumping up into a tree, he saw four, masked shinobi in pale armor darting from limb to limb as they returned from a mission. Activating his Sharingan, his suspicions were confirmed. The smallest of the four had a shock of white hair. Itachi watched how Hatake Kakashi moved through the trees. The other had a singe eye with the Sharingan, and it had only displayed two toma when it had been removed from his cousin and implanted into Kakashi. It was also covered; since the other boy was incapable of turning the Sharingan on and off so if not covered, it would be a constant drain on his body. Itachi knew how painful the chakra depletion from overuse of the Sharingan was first hand.

The other three shinobi in their pale ANBU armor and black uniforms had no chance of noticing the small Uchiha. He had always been a natural at the illusions of genjutsu. Without any of them having a Sharingan or even the Byakugan of the Hyuuga clan to try to see through the illusion, Itachi knew the four members of the ANBU forces would not see him. Even when he took off through the trees after them, he knew they would not see him. As long as he could avoid his own clan, he could follow the four ANBU back to the village.

The ANBU squad slipped into the building that housed their units. Itachi could not risk following in there, no matter how good his illusions were. He remained on a rooftop about a block away, waiting for Kakashi to come out from the building. It was cold, and Itachi was wearing only thin training clothes. He could not use chakra to keep warm though, that would make it too likely that someone would spot him. For three hours, the eight-year-old Uchiha hid on the rooftop. He was just a genin, but he was the genius of the Uchiha clan – it should not have surprised anyone that he could escape detection for that long. He certainly did not seem surprised by it.

The sky was starting to lighten, but no one at his house would be surprised if Itachi was not at home for breakfast. He often left the house before dawn under the pretenses of training. Sunrise was moments away when Hatake Kakashi walked from the building. He was wearing a black mask, black pants, and a black shirt. His hitai-ate was askew over his face, covering the scared eye with Obito's Sharingan in it. Black gloves and boots left very little exposed on the teenager. Kakashi was now sixteen and a Jônin in the ANBU forces, but he still typically wore the same clothes he had back when he had been on a team with Itachi's cousin Obito.

White belts crossed the boy's chest holding the Tonto blade the older boy wore on his back in place. Kakashi was a contrast in dark and light -- pale skin and hair with dark clothes. The contrast was not too different from Itachi's own with the play between black hair and clothes and his pale complexion. Kakashi started to move towards the wall of the village, to the small field where the memorial stone was located. Silently, still cloaked in the genjutsu, Itachi followed.

The young Uchiha was tired from maintaining the illusion for so long. He concentrated on not getting sloppy as he snuck through the outlying areas of Konohagakure, following the back of Hatake Kakashi. By the time they reached the Memorial stone, Itachi was near exhausted, he knew he would have to drop the genjutsu soon, but he had to see what had caused Kakashi to go to the stone.

As Itachi struggled to keep his breathing perfectly quiet, the other spoke. "I know you are there."

Itachi let the illusion drop. The constant channeling of chakra into the illusion had worn him down, and the cold weather had made his already pale skin look like white porcelain. As the boy stepped out from the shadows so that Kakashi could see him, the young Uchiha heir seemed harmless. He looked like a damp, cold, young boy. His skin an even starker contrast against his black clothing and black hair. "How did you know?"

Kakashi keep a wary eye on the boy. He had met Itachi before and he knew who he was. He knew this boy had activated the Sharingan and defeated S class criminals already at the age of eight. He was not going to underestimate him, no matter how like a small child he seemed. "When we came back, before you put up the illusion."

Itachi's eyes widened. He had been sure that no one had seen him. He frowned, but with his childlike features, the expression seemed more like a pout. "You didn't act like you noticed."

Of course Kakashi had noticed, how else would he have known where Itachi had started following him. Although the determination shown by holding the illusion for the hours that his unit had been in the debriefing showed that the young Uchiha had some sort of reason for hiding his presence and evidently following him all the way to the memorial stone. "I wanted to see how long it would take my teammates to notice."

Itachi narrowed his eyes at Kakashi. "…" He did not say anything. If the entire squad knew that he had been following them that could be potentially bad. If word had gotten back to his father that Itachi had been at the river all those hours ago, it would be known that he had snuck off. This could be very bad.

The brief flash of fear did not go unnoticed. Even though he was not a Uchiha, Kakashi was a very observant Shinobi. To be an ANBU since he was fifteen meant he was also very good. There was more than on genius in the village. "They didn't notice." The flash of relief across the young Uchiha's face also was noticed. He did not know why that brought relief, unless Itachi had been doing something he should not have been doing. Uchiha were always hard to figure out though. They were never easy to read, and it was only through years of being on a team with one that Kakashi was even capable of reading the emotion that Itachi was too exhausted to suppress. "Why did you follow me?" He did want to know what about him drew the attention of the Uchiha heir. Most of the Uchiha had started to dismiss him again. The initial disdain caused by having Obito's eye implanted into his skull had been lessened when the medical ninja had determined that Kakashi would never be able to advance it past its two toma form.

Itachi contemplated lying. It would be safer to lie than to tell the truth. There was a risk that the other would know he was lying though. He was too tired for this. He was exhausted and bordering on being back into a case of chakra exhaustion. He said the first thing he could think of for a lie. At night, he had to hear his father's ramblings about threats to the Uchiha clan, both real and imagined. "I wanted to know if you had advanced your Sharingan." It was not the best lie, the doctors had all said it was impossible, but it was a worry that Fugaku had and often voiced at home.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed. If he did not know the boy was lying, he would have been very worried. In fact, yes he had advanced the sharingan to its three-toma form. He hadn't told anyone though, because then the Uchiha clan would go through another round of threats and posturing about how the eye was the property of the Uchiha clan, and without his sensei in the position of Hokage, Kakashi was less sure of what the outcome would be. "You're lying, Uchiha." He was loosing patience with this. The boy was lying; however that the sharingan was the first thing he thought of confirmed that there were those in the Uchiha clan who still believed it a possibility.

Itachi looked at Kakashi. How did he know? He must be more tired than he thought. He glanced around, thinking. He had to think. He had to … stop the world from spinning. Itachi looked up at Kakashi, suddenly his black eyes locked with the visible pale grayish blue eye. The truth tumbled from his mouth as everything went black and the boy gave in to unconsciousness. "Are you evil?"


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 7 -_

Kakashi caught the boy before he even hit the ground. The drain of holding the illusion jutsu had obviously been too much for the boy. What surprised Kakashi was how hot Itachi felt. A quick check confirmed that the boy had a serious fever. He was tempted to drop the Uchiha off either with his family or the hospital and wash his hands of the affair, but he made the mistake of looking at the memorial stone.

Obito had worried about his little cousin -- he never told Kakashi the reason why. Kakashi had always assumed it was due to the pressure the clan put on him, the need to be better and stronger than children twice the young boy's age. Even now, at eight, the boy was more on the level of shinobi Kakashi's age. Tears were moistening the fabric over the transplanted eye and Kakashi knew what he had to do. He needed to know why the boy had really been following him, and somehow the final words the Uchiha had uttered had seemed to be the truth. The boy honestly wanted to know if Kakashi was evil – whatever that meant.

Kakashi placed Itachi into his own bed back in his room. He doubted anyone would be looking for the boy for several hours. The entire village new the Uchiha did not have a team right now. One teammate dead. One teammate injured to the point of not being able to be a Shinobi any more. Their Jônin-sensei kidnapped by a criminal organization. No, the Uchiha had no one looking for him right now. With rest, the boy's fever started to calm under the blankets. It was nearly lunchtime when Kakashi looked up from the book he was reading. Itachi's chakra had shifted. Such a slight shift that if Kakashi had not known exactly what to watch for, and the boy had not been so worn out, he would have never realized the Uchiha woke up.

Itachi woke up somewhere comfortable and warm. The room smelt faintly of dogs, but he did not know where he was. He was careful not to give any signs he had woken up. He listened intently. From the sounds coming from the open window he could tell it was around lunchtime and he was in Konoha. He just did not know exactly where. He knew someone else was in the room, a shinobi who was also suppressing his chakra. The last thing he remembered was talking to Hatake Kakashi at the memorial stone.

Black eyes flew open as Itachi realized exactly where he was. He had passed out while talking to Kakashi and the young ANBU operative had taken him back to his apartment instead of delivering Itachi to the hospital or the Uchiha clan. Itachi just did not know why. If he had been bought to either other place he would have been in serious trouble. He saw the teenage crossing the room from the chair he had been sitting in. A book was being put down on the floor as Kakashi looked down at Itachi.

Kakashi did not pause before questioning the young Uchiha, he had been thinking for hours about what Itachi had said, and was no closer to knowing any answers. "Why did you ask if I was evil?"

Itachi didn't answer. "Why didn't you turn me in?" Yes, he meant why didn't Kakashi hand him over to his family or the hospital, but in this case, it would have been the same as turning him in since he would be in serious trouble explaining his actions.

"Turn you in?" The slip did not go unnoticed. "To your clan?" Kakashi stared at the boy, something was going on and he was intent on finding out what it was.

Itachi just stared at Kakashi, unable to believe he had slipped so badly. "I was supposed to be resting." It was not a lie. The doctors had ordered him to take it easy at home for a few weeks before resuming training. Perhaps if he told people he had returned to training too fast, he would not be in as much trouble. Then again knowing his father, it might be approved of. Maybe his clan's reputation for being strict would be of advantage for once.

Kakashi nodded, unsure if he should believe Itachi or not. He knew first hand how much trouble Obito would get in whenever anything did not go according to plan. Perhaps this was the truth. Maybe Itachi would have been in trouble with his clan for being out and training. That did not explain why the boy had been following Kakashi though. When he had said that he wanted to know if Kakashi was evil, that did seem to be the truth. "Why do you think I am evil?"

Itachi looked at Kakashi. Damn, he had said that. He was careful to control all signs of if he were telling the truth or not. He did not know what to say. He had been trained to fight. He had been trained to resist torture. He had never been trained for this, though. He had to change the subject, "Why did you take me here?"

Kakashi's mind flashed through the times with Obito in his team. Of course, Uchiha never seemed close. Hell, the Uchiha were not known to show emotion at all in public. The only Uchiha he had ever seen any emotion from was from his old teammate. Perhaps the boy deserved to know the truth. "Obito once told me he was worried for you."

Itachi's eyes widened. He jumped to his feet, his back pressed to the wall. He did not care that the fear was obvious in his expression. He had hoped that Obito had been good. He had clung to the belief that others in the clan were still good. No, this proved it. Obito knew. Obito knew about what Fugaku did to him. Obito had seemed nice. Obito had seemed like he cared about Itachi. The young Uchiha's world came crumbling down as he could do nothing but shake his head, eyes flashing to red. No, Kakashi was telling the truth. Obito must have known. Of course, Obito knew, he was a Uchiha. Itachi screamed, "No!" He threw himself from the bed, throwing himself through the window not even caring about where he landed. He just needed to get away from there. He had to get away as fast as he could. Rooftop to rooftop, Sharingan activated to make his retreat faster. He did not stop until he was back in his normal training spot, huddled between the roots of a tree, protected by the green leaves on all sides. He stayed there as his mind raced.

Kakashi looked at the Uchiha's retreating back as the boy fled. He did not know what had caused the panic. He thought back on what he had said; how could speaking about Obito having been worried cause the boy to over react. He thought about chasing after the boy, but stopped himself. There was more that he had to figure out. Something was strange. He was determined to find out though. He closed his window, grabbing his Tonto to attach it to his back again. He went to the ANBU headquarters again, this time he was carefully watching how the various members of the Uchiha clan were acting.

Eventually Itachi looked up. The sun was starting to set, and he would be expected to be home for dinner shortly. He stood up, putting the conversation with Hatake Kakashi behind him. He had to blank his mind to be able to face his father. He walked into the house, quickly moving to clean himself up. He would be in clean clothes by the time that his father returned home. Cleaned and with his hair tied back, Itachi walked back into the kitchen. He was looking older now, he had grown in the past few years. He wasn't tall, by any stretch, however, he was starting to get the Uchiha height. He was thin as well. The Uchiha tended not to bulk up, especially the Uchiha from his mother's line. His dark hair hung in his eyes as he ate the freshly grilled fish.

Dinner had been going well. There was no serious talk of anything and his father had not yet come home. With any luck, the man would be at work late. It was those nights that Fugaku tended to go to sleep and not spend time with his eldest son. Dinner was almost over when the door flew open and Fugaku stormed in. Without a word he walked through the kitchen, throwing the door open to his bedroom. With a quick glance from his mother, Itachi was left with Sasuke. While Itachi tried to coerce the picky little boy into eating some more dinner, he could clearly hear the arguing in the other room.

His father's voice was clear and loud through the thin walls. "That bastard Hatake humiliated our clan. That bastard who gave him a Sharingan eye should have his entire line removed from our Clan. I swear they will pay for this."

His mother whispered something that Itachi could not make out, but his father's response once again was loud and clear, the harsh words making Sasuke upset. Grabbing his little brother and fleeing the house, Itachi heard his father's words echoing. "That bastard's squad succeeded where a squad with two of our clan failed, how dare they."

Itachi brought his little brother to the center of the Uchiha compound. Few people were out, but he was easily able to distract the boy with some candy and some flowers. Itachi watched the little boy, unable to believe that his father was upset that an ANBU squad actually did their job. They took and completed a mission for the good of Konoha. They made the village a little safer. Yes, they did it when a squad with Uchiha could not do it. Unlike his father, Itachi did not see this the same way. Like his father, he agreed it was a disgrace to the Uchiha clan; however, not a question of how dare Hatake's squad complete the mission, but how dare the other squad fail.

It was close to Sasuke's bedtime when he brought the child back to the house. There was no sign of his father. He handed over the sleepy toddler to his mother. For her part, she simply took the boy, quietly telling Itachi that his father had gone back to work. Yes, tonight would be a night that Itachi did not have to deal with his father, but tonight he had more important things to think of. He needed to make ANBU. To make ANBU he needed to make Chuunin. To make chuunin, he needed to be re-assigned to a team. To be reassigned, he needed to heal. For that, he needed to rest and to train. He went to bed that night, positive that he was going to get stronger. He would train and rest and heal and soon be in ANBU. Soon, it would be his squad that was surpassing that of Kakashi's. He would prove to his father that he was stronge, and some day, he would be stronger than Fugaku. He would change the clan if it was the last thing he did. The only problem was that he had a deadline, the deadline caused by Sasuke. He would not let anything taint the purity of his little brother.

That night Itachi's dreams were filled of plans for the rebirth of the Uchiha clan. He would find a way to cleanse it of the taint that permeated every aspect of the clan. He would trust no one. He had thought Obito was free of the taint, but Kakashi's words had proven that false. No one could be trusted. Being in ANBU would also give him a better opportunity to watch Kakashi, to determine if he was truly evil or if it was possible to possess the Sharingan and not be corrupted. He would be the most powerful Uchiha ever, and his name would go down in history.


	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

I don't have a Beta right now. If this changes, this note will change

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 8 –_

Itachi continued to work. His aim improved and his ability with the Sharingan became better and better. He also improved his endurance by keeping the Sharingan on as much as he could. By the time that he was reassigned to a team that had lost a member, he was capable of keeping his Sharingan on except when he was asleep. He had been getting stronger and better. His new sensei was teaching him more jutsu. This one was from the Yuuhi clan, known for being Genjutsu specialists. It was not long before Itachi's new squad was simply known as 'that' squad. Chuunin exams came and went and their sensei did not sign them up.

Two years went by with Itachi in his new team. When Itachi was ten, they missed the chuunin exam because their sensei had taken a three-month mission for them. What the village did not know was that it was an S class mission. Only the Hokage knew that a group of three genin was sent on such a thing. It required that team's special skills though. Perhaps ANBU could have done it, but none of the ANBU teams had two illusion specialists, one of which was a Uchiha with fully developed Sharingan – a Uchiha who could easily pass as a harmless girl.

They were sent deep into Lighting country. There was a scroll that was important to fire country and it was important for it to be recovered before any other shinobi village knew where it was and more importantly, what it was. Had the third sent out an ANBU squad, then there was a greater chance of others figuring it out. However, a squad of Genin caused no alarms to be raised.

The four shinobi traveled the distance to Lightning quickly. It would take some time to case the building the scroll was being kept in and to figure out a way in, but the man in charge had a habit of entertaining young ladies in a way that few would call entertaining. The team had two options for infiltrating the building, but until they had a better idea, they would not know which was the safer. They were the only genin team with a perfect success record though, and this mission was not going to ruin that for them.

It took them nearly two months to completely scout the building and discover where the scroll was. Unfortunately, the man in charge was very paranoid – of course, it was with good reason. The only way in would be the worst-case scenario. One of the group would need to be taken by him back into the man's bedroom. It was there that the scroll was stored. The room was located in the center of the building and guards were everywhere. It would be difficult to get out, let alone to get in. The only way was if the man thought he was seducing one of the team. The waited another two weeks, making preparations. There was a festival coming up, and all the girls in the village would be dressed up and they knew the man would be on the prowl.

Kimono were purchased and Itachi … or Keiko as he would be known for the night was dressed. His long black hair arranged up in fancy combs and his face made up in perfect make up. The female team member, Tsukada Sachiko was also dressed up. Both wore fancy kimono complete with perfectly tied bows and wooden sandals. Sachiko had also been brought up in a more formal clan so she knew how to do formal dress. Their sensei of course also knew such things. Soon half the team appeared to be village girls from middle to high-class families that were dressed up for the festival that night.

Itachi and Sachiko walked through the center of the village, staying close to one another. They walked from place to place, sticking close to each other. The many layers of fabric would make fighting difficult if things came to that and their weapons were also concealed beneath many layers of fabric. Their sensei had said it would be too obvious to hide weapons ion the sashes.

Soon they found where the man was. Alcohol had been flowing for a while and he appeared intoxicated, however his bodyguards were not. The two 'girls' stopped at a food stand and picked up some candy. They were not typical ten year olds, they were from a shinobi village and knew how to play a part. They giggled and nibbled on candy and played with each other's hair. They were subtle, but the man's eyes were drawn to the two girls. One with raven dark tresses and pale skin and the other with soft brown shorter hair and vibrant green eyes.

Once the two leaf-shinobi knew they had their target's attention, they started talking about how beautiful the flowers at a stand were, but when they checked their purses, they did not have enough money for the flowers. Not even realizing the trap, the man sent a bodyguard to buy the flowers for the two girls. Of course, they had to thank their benefactor and accept his gracious offer to take them to his house for dinner. Of course, they completely believed the lie that one of the bodyguards would tell their parents where they were.

Under the watchful eyes of their sensei and third teammate, Itachi and Sachiko were lead away by the man to his house. Now they just had to wait and see if the two could carry off the inside job. They took up positions around the building, hoping they wouldn't have to pull a frontal assault to extract their teammates, but pretty sure that their assistance would be needed, and soon.

Inside the building the two 'girls' were lead to a table full of sweets and fruits and various delicacies. There was also a lot of wine. A quick check proved the wine was drugged. While it appeared that both ate and drank, in fact they hardly touched anything. They would be very amateur shinobi to fall for such a thing. However, soon they were faking an inability to stay awake. It went against their training, but both went slack as they were picked up and moved.

Their sensei had been right. The man was extremely paranoid, and even the two 'girls' were checked for any weapons before being brought back to his bedroom. This was exactly what they had hoped for. Either shinobi was prepared to carry out the mission by themselves; however, their best chances would be if the man was greedy and chose to have both of the friends.

Both of the children from leaf pretended to be heavily drugged, but still slightly responsive as the older man started to remove their sandals and the decorative belts to the kimonos. Hair combs fell to the floor and dark tresses fell across Itachi's skin as he moved just slightly. As the older man pinned him down, he felt his throat grabbed, A thumb pressing right under his ear. The man's other hand pressing against his hip bone. Suddenly his black eyes shot open, a look of fear obvious. His breathing became quick as he struggled to block his fight or flight reflex.

The older man started crooning consoling words, about how this would be over soon and not to be worried. Itachi's heart was racing though and his breathing was so fast he felt like he was going to pass out. The man was gripping him just like his father did. As Sachiko was pulling weapons out from her undergarments, the man was fully distracted by Itachi's reaction. Before she could kill the man though, Itachi realized something. This man he could kill. Unlike his father, this man was not stronger than him. He could kill him.

Death was not instantaneous though. No, Itachi could have killed the man barehanded easily as he gave into the fight reflex instead of flight. No, he pulled out the man's throat, careful to leave the arteries leading to the brain. He watched as the man started to drown in his own blood. He pushed the dying man down onto the bed as Sachiko watched in surprise. Itachi's voice was low and deadly as he watched the man realize he was dying. Cold emotionless words dripping with the promise of death flowed from Itachi's mouth. "You will never touch anyone like that again. You will suffer for eternity for what you have done." With that, Itachi ripped open the man's abdomen, his arm snaking into the organs of the torso to grab the still beating heart and yank it. At some point before death, the man passed out.

Itachi slammed the man's heart, slippery with blood into the opening he had made in the throat. Shoving gore into blood until the organ was no longer recognizable. Then, Itachi stopped moving. He looked down at the body beneath him. He looked at the blood covering his arms. He looked over at his teammate. What he did not expect was to see compassion in her eyes. She reached out a hand to lead him away from the body. As Itachi stood there stunned, she hid the man's corpse under a sheet and then started to clean the blood off of Itachi.

He did not know what to do. It had a long time since he had experienced an act of compassion like that. Her assurances of 'he is dead', did not mean much. Itachi knew that man was dead, but he also knew his father was very much alive. His father. As she finished cleaning him up, he looked at her. "I … I can't fail this mission." He was Uchiha Itachi, his voice was not supposed to sound like that. He was supposed to be confident and sure and cold. He was supposed to be a Uchiha for Kami's sake.

She looked at him, never having heard her teammate of almost two years now speak like that. "We won't fail." Her emphasis on 'we' was obvious. This was a team, it might have been a team made up of parts and mashed together, but it was a team now, and a very good one.

For once in his life, Itachi realized he had people he could rely on, honestly rely on. He nodded, starting to relax as they prepared to make their break from the building. The scroll was in the desk in the room right where their intelligence had indicated. Now with the weapons they had hidden at their disposal, they prepared to fight their way out. The man's bodyguards didn't have a chance. By the time the two reached outside and the other two members of the team, they were both covered in enough blood that what happened back in the room was not noticed. Their teammates did not say anything about the blood as they fled the village and darted through the woods before anyone could pursue them. No mention in the report was made of the fact that rumor had it a squad of twenty men had infiltrated the building based upon the blood and carnage.

A few hours later they stopped so the two blood soaked members of the team could clean themselves. Glances were exchanged between their sensei and the other team member when Sachiko and Itachi went to the same area of river to clean; however, nothing was ever said about it from them. It was that day that the team dynamics began to change as Itachi started to develop a friendship with someone.

When they got back to the village, the chuunin exams were over, and the three genin started to leave the mission debriefing wondering if they would be able to attend the next chuunin exams. As they left the building, Sachiko frowned, "Itachi-kun?" She tilted her head as she looked at him. "Do you want to have dinner with my family? They said they'd like to meet my newest teammate."

Itachi had fully recovered from the mission and the reaction he had to being held down like that. Now his body language and tone betrayed nothing about his inner emotions. He seemed like near every other Uchiha, completely in control of himself. "I need to inform my family I have returned." With out another word he turned his back to her and walked off towards the Uchiha compound.

He had to be more careful in the future. He was not sure what the girl had figured out, but it could be dangerous, not only for himself, but also for her. She was his teammate and he had a responsibility to keep her safe. It did not occur to him that this was the first team he actually felt a connection to. His old team, he had felt an attachment of sorts to his sensei. That seemed difference than actually caring about the other three members that made up his team. They were actually his team, not just the people he had been assigned to.

When he got home, he had to listen to the excitement amongst the clan. Two Uchiha had made it to Chuunin. Everywhere people were talking about how exciting the final rounds of combat had been. Evidently, it came down to Uchiha versus Uchiha and was one of the most heavily bet on battles since the end of the war with Rock. He did not miss the few people who made remarks about how it was too bad that Itachi was not in the chuunin exams as well this time around. Of course, some people were saying that it was because Itachi wasn't as good as people had thought. That Itachi had been sent away on some low level mission so it would not look like they were purposefully not letting him compete.

Itachi sat on the roof of his family's house, waiting for his mother to get back with Sasuke. He did not know where she was, but he did not want to be in the house when it was empty. He did not think he could deal with it if his father came home when no one else was there. He knew that the mission they had been on had officially been recorded as a simple class C. Only a few people knew what it really had been. He sighed as he sat on the roof. How had things gone from the clan being proud of him for activating his Sharingan and defeating several S class missing nin not even two years ago to near mocking him?

He knew he was good. He did not even know why what his clan thought mattered to him, but deep down he knew that he still wanted his father's approval. He didn't know why he wanted that man's approval. He should not care what his clan thought, they were all horrible. He needed to be in the next Chuunin exam. He could not let this new sense of teamwork delay his progressing any further. He needed to get stronger. Every day that passed resulted in Sasuke getting closer to the day he would master the Katon. He had to be strong enough when that day happened. He would be. Without waiting for anything else, he ran off across the village. He would convince his new Jônin-sensei that they HAD to be allowed to take the next chuunin exam.


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

I don't have a Beta right now. If this changes, this note will change

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 9 -_

Itachi darted from rooftop to rooftop. His joining-sensei's apartment was all the way across the village from the Uchiha district. He flew across rooftops. The chakra control needed to balance perfect on slick roof tiles coming without any conscious thought. He landed on the ground next to the building his teacher lived in and started to make his way up the stairs. By pure reflex, his chakra was perfectly masked. He had gotten so used to masking it everywhere he went so no one in his clan would know when he wasn't and when he was within the walls of the Uchiha compound. He was almost at the door when he felt something odd. Pausing, he sensed Sachiko's chakra signature within his Jônin-sensei's apartment.

Itachi remained silent in the hallway listening to the conversation though the door. He kneeled down at the keyhole. He was unable to see enough through that, so he tried to find a crack in the door, finally finding a small area on the bottom of the door where the wood was not flush to the floor. He could only see part of the scene inside, but it was enough. He saw her feet as she sat in a chair. His jônin sense was pacing back and forth. "I want to know what happened in there. It is not like either of you to emerge so bloody. I want to know."

He heard her intake of breath, "Nothing happened. We did our mission. We did our mission perfectly. You were there for the debriefing. We killed the target and obtained the scroll. We all knew it would be messy getting out."

"Sachiko-chan. Don't give me that. They didn't say it in the debriefing but there are reports from that village that someone had ripped that man's throat out and then shoved his heart down his throat. What the hell is up with that?"

Itachi had never heard his jônin sensei so mad. He had never heard anyone yell at Sachiko like that before either. She was kind and sweet and she did not seem like she belonged with the rest of them. She did not even seem like she should be a shinobi, as if she was too pure to have her hands bloodied by such things. He found himself getting mad that she was being yelled at. Then he heard her crying.

Suddenly the movements of his sensei slowed. "Sachiko-chan, just tell me what's wrong." He saw a knee appear by her feet as their teacher kneeled in front of her.

The pain was obvious in her voice, but Itachi knew somehow she was faking it. He had seen how calm she had been when he killed the man, and he had been the one the man's hands had been on.

"Itachi…." She broke off crying, taking a moment to recover. It was an incredible act and Itachi had no idea how she was managing it so well. "I couldn't. Itachi had to cover for me. He … he … that man…" Again there was a pause as she tried to 'recover' from whatever happened.

His teacher's voice was softer and gentler than he had ever heard it, "It's all right, just tell me what's wrong. I promise I won't tell anyone."

Itachi stayed where he was. He had given up almost all hope of ever hearing those words and being able to believe them. Here those words were being said to a girl who in all likelihood was doing nothing more than trying to cover for him.

She continued on, her voice shaking to the point that Itachi wasn't sure if it was actually an act. He did not think anyone could act that well. "It … it was a mission. I was sent in as distraction. I … my squad didn't get there fast enough. I wasn't strong enough and… I begged them not to tell. It … it isn't on my record, so please. Don't tell anyone?" The tone in her voice was desperate; it was as desperate as Itachi felt deep inside.

Once again, their sensei's voice was calm and reassuring. "I won't tell anyone. If I had known I would have never put you into that situation." He was still kneeling by the girl, hesitant to touch her considering the subject.

"Itachi was just protecting me. He really cares about this team. He just … you know, is … quiet." She sniffed a little as she pulled her legs up to her, wrapping her arms around her knees. "You … you won't tell him I told you?"

There sensei sighed, "I won't say anything, but why is him protecting you a secret? You're his teammate, he should protect you."

Sachiko sounded determined. "No we all need to protect each other. I … I should go, my parents will be worried."

As she got up to leave, Itachi left the building. Today was not the day to talk about the chuunin testing. He perched on a roof, watching for the girl to leave the apartment. What he did not expect was for her eyes to lock with his as she walked down the street, the gesture of come here was unmistakable. Itachi jumped down and was at her side, walking with his teammate down the road.

She took a breath and looked at him, "How much of that did you hear?"

"Enough." He looked at her, still unable to believe she had sounded that convincing.

"What is with that tone?" She led the way into one of the small parks that littered Konoha, little pieces of the forest that sheltered the hidden city.

"Sachiko-san, You lie very well." His tone was cold as he spoke, colder than typical even.

"Didn't they teach you in the academy that the easiest lies to tell are the truth? If our positions had been reversed…." She looked over at him, knowing that he would not say anything about this.

"You don't know what you're talking about." Itachi did not notice that this was one of the longest conversations he had ever had with a teammate. It was probably the longest conversation he had had all year outside of mission briefings and debriefings.

"I've never seen you scared before." She paused to look back at Itachi where he had frozen in his tracks. "I … I didn't think you were ready to talk so … I … I thought—"

He cut her off. "Well don't. I don't need you." He was about to jump into a tree and escape via the rooftops when he paused for a moment. "Thank you." Then he was gone in a swirl of chakra smoke and leaves. He did not see the slight smile that appeared on his teammate's face. The next day when the team met again, nothing was said. Practice went on like normal. Sachiko did not even say anything to Itachi; however, she did not have to. The team was operating more smoothly now, the dynamic between the three now involving more trust.

As their sensei watched, he knew they would be ready for the chuunin exams. The trust between the members had been missing. The addition of the Uchiha had increased the team's strength, but without trust, he did not feel confident sending them into the exam. Now after that last mission something had changed. Sachiko trusted Itachi and Itachi seemed to trust her. That was enough for the third member to trust both and the team was suddenly in very good shape. Yes, he was definitely putting their names in for the Chuunin exam.


	11. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

I don't have a Beta right now. If this changes, this note will change

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 10 -_

The next four months passed quickly. The team completed several missions, all of 'B' rank. Everyone knew that the team would be recommended for the chuunin exams. When the recommendation meeting finally happened, they were the team with the most experience. It was generally assumed that all three members had a very good chance of passing the exam. This time, the exams were being held in Rock country as a sign of trust. They left three weeks before the beginning of the exam in order to be there and well rested. All twelve teams that Konoha was sending were traveling in a single large group. The pace was slow and Itachi was impatient with how much time was being taken up with travel instead of practicing for the exam.

Sachiko noticed her teammate's frustration and walked over to him. "Itachi-kun, I bet that you can't take a shuriken from each of the other genin without them noticing before we reach the hidden village."

He scoffed at her. It was a juvenile trick that he hadn't even participated in when he was in the academy. Then again … "It would at least be some form of training."

She smiled, kicking up some dirt with one sandal as she walked, "And it would be a good chance for out team to try and learn the capabilities of the other teams. Perhaps a race? Who can complete a stolen set of shuriken first?" She was pretty sure he would go for it, especially with that logic.

The third member of their team, Nobu, was soon brought into the plan. Since there would be too much of a chance of someone noticing three shuriken gone and alerting the rest of the party, they broke the teams up. Each of them would be responsible for stealing a shuriken off of a different member of each team. Winner would get dinner paid for by the other two once they got back to Konoha after the exams.

Four days later, they were a short ways off from the rest of the group. The three genin huddled together and whispered as they sketched out what they learned on a blank scroll. Itachi was the winner with 12 shuriken in 3 days 1 hour. Sachiko only took an extra four hours. Nobu, their third member, had just completed his set before sundown. While Itachi was pleased he won, even more important was the information this gained them. They had a listing of the strengths and weaknesses of every genin traveling with them. They knew how their team could defeat any one of the other teams, and they had gained an insight into how to defeat each individually as well.

The jônin sensei had taken to patrolling the group using as much stealth as possible. All three members of the team had not been surprised by this, or fooled by it. They just let the other jônin sensei believe that they were fooled. Whenever one of the sensei had come over to check on what they were doing during their planning session, the team had simply started talking about old missions they had been on. However, they knew their own Jônin-sensei would not believe it. When he approached them, he did not bother with stealth and they simply made room for him in their little gathering.

"And what have you three been up to? Everyone is wondering why you are over here recounting past missions. What did you guys do?" He looked around at his little group of students. He was extremely proud of them. They had turned from three individuals into a very powerful team. However, they were a team and he knew that they acted like a team. Individuals were easy to predict, a well working team was hard. When they handed him the scroll with their notes on it, he could not help smiling. Yes, his genin would pass; there was no way they would not. This was proof their information gathering skills were superior. Their teamwork was excellent. Their individual skills had been honed. All three portions of the test they were ready for, at least as much as any genin ever could be.

He felt a little unfair confiscating the stolen shuriken from his students; however, he was obligated to. Anyways, he would enjoy the looks on the other sensei's faces when he said that his team had played an academy style prank on their teams and were completely undetected. He was not going to say a word about the intelligence his team had discovered. No, they had worked hard for that. As night fell over the caravan once again, he was even more confident that his three genin would be heading home as chuunin. This was the most prepared team he had ever brought to the chuunin exams.

In the morning, the other sensei distributed the shuriken back to their rightful owners. The decision had been made to say it had been a test the jônin had conducted and to mention how poorly each had done. Turning the embarrassment into a leaning opportunity was actually a smart idea and could benefit Konoha, so the teams' sensei went with the plan. When he met with his team to tell them how 'disappointed' the jônin were in all the genin, he actually congratulated them. He also warned them not to try a stunt like that again.

A few days after that, they finally crossed into Rock country and the attitudes of all the Jônin changed. None of the genin had fought in the war with Rock; however, all of the jônin had. This was a return to enemy territory for them and something that put the entire group ill at ease. The leisurely pace they had followed in Fire country was gone and instead replaced with a much more brisk pace. The jônin had every intention of getting this group of genin to the barracks they had been assigned for the chuunin exam. They also intended to make sure those barracks were safe and easily fortified. The political decision to show a trust between leaf and rock by having the Konoha genin attend a rock sponsored Chuunin exam made sense, but the men and women actually sent were not fooled into thinking it was safe. It was extremely dangerous, dangerous but necessary.

Finally, the Konoha contingent reached the barracks they had been assigned for the chuunin testing. The jônin were quickly in motion making sure they were secure, traps were checked for, poisons tested for. The place seemed to be safe as well as easily defensible. At last, the genin were allowed to unpack in their rooms. Each genin group had been given a single room with three beds. While most of the teams complained about this, since Konoha gave each visiting genin their own room, Itachi's team preferred it this way. They had no intention of trusting rock either. The suspicions of their jônin sensei were well founded and they were not going to be taken unaware. The entire time they were in Rock country they fully intended to act as if they were in enemy territory. Watch schedules, testing all their food, anything that would keep them from being injured or killed. They did not see it as paranoid and they were used to watch schedules anyways.

The next week was uneventful as they waited for the first test for the chuunin exams. They did not know what form the test would take, but all three knew it would be some sort of information gathering test. All the genin were seated randomly in the room. As they had planned in advance, all three of the team were dressed identically in black including black sunglasses. What the glasses hid, were that Itachi had his Sharingan activated. They used a combination of genjutsu and observation to pass the test. Small illusions created between their teammate's eyes and the sunglasses where no proctor could possibly see. Their training as a team paid off. They were one of nine teams to pass the first test. One of three to have come from Fire.

The breakdown after the first test was that three teams were from Fire. Three were from Earth country, one was from Wind and one from Water country. The final team was from the small country of Grass. The nine teams immediately were escorted to the location of the second test. Each team was led to a cave. They were told the caves all connected at various points within the maze of the mountain, but only one emerged on the other side.

As the three genin stood at the front of their cave, their Jônin sensei and a representative of rock were there with them. They were each handed a small glass ball. The instructions were simple. For a team to pass, they had to survive to reach the exit. Everything was fair, there were no rules. Only one out of every five balls would contain an item it took to unlock the door blocking them from leaving. The more balls, the greater the chances of a genin team getting out. Without any more advice from their sensei, the three entered the cave to be sealed in as a Rock-nin performed an earth Jutsu sealing the cave and blocking out all light.

The three did not waste chakra on anything fancy. They did not announce their presence by using fire. Sachiko and Nobu fell to their normal sides of Itachi and let him lead them using his Sharingan. It was not the best way of navigating, but Itachi was capable of holding his clan ability in place for every waking moment of his day. His stamina with the technique had improved with constant use. He had a Uchiha physiology, it was adapted to the slight drain of the Sharingan, fine tuning it until the eyes took as little to fuel them as possible. They moved like that, as if they truly were shadows and not just shinobi named for shadow.

The three worked quickly, locating a team from Rock. They followed the Rock nin without a word. In the dim light of the torches the other team carried, Sachiko started to weave her illusion. The member in the back thought he was keeping pace with his teammates, but he had become trapped in the illusion. Slowly his teammates were getting farther and farther ahead. As that was done, Itachi moved into the third man's spot, another illusion woven around him to appear to be their third man. Nobu moved into action and killed the Rock Genin that Sachiko had drawn away from the rest of his group and they took his marble. When they caught up with Itachi, a silent command was given and the remaining two members of the team were dead in an instant.

Now with six of the glass orbs, the team proceeded towards the end of this maze, carrying the torches from the fallen Rock Ninja. They could easily have found the exit and the odds would have been with them for having a valid orb to open the door. The reason they had targeted a Rock team first was that they had assumed the 'randomly' given out orbs were not exactly random. Now with the three orbs from a Rock team, they had an excellent chance of having their way out, but then they would have to face more people in the final. Only the other two teams from fire were known risks in this. Thus, they went hunting.

Seven hours later, they sat in a small circle eating their rations. The other two teams from Fire did not have rations on them, but Itachi's team was always prepared. The water village corpses were in a neat pile. They now had nine orbs. By simple math, their chances were getting better and better. Nine teams, twenty-seven orbs, that meant either 5 or 6 keys existed.

Nobu looked at his teammates, "Well, If there are five or six orbs, then the chances of the other two leaf teams having them all are extremely slim. We could leave them so we have someone to face in the final exam instead of having to fight one another."

Sachiko frowned, "But if it I just nine of us, then we will have to fight each other still." She looked at her teammates, "I don't want to fight either of you."

Itachi stood up, signaling an end to the break and the other two started to do the same. What they did not expect was for him to weigh in. "We will take out as many non leaf teams as possible, and then when we face each other in the finals, we will not use lethal means." With that, the discussion was at an end and the three genin moved on.

The next team from Rock was dispatched almost as easily as the first one and brought their orb total to twelve. There were only three valid targets left, one from wind, one from grass and one from rock. That was when they came across a grisly sight. One of the other teams from Konoha had been killed. A quick check of the corpses proved it was by poisoned weapons. The three moved more carefully now, the team from Grass was nearby and had at least six orbs.

Itachi's team found the team from Suna first. They put up a better fight. They had used the same technique of separating the rear most person, but this time the other two Sand-nin noticed before Itachi's teammates could catch up. He should have been more prepared. He had been taken by surprise by the two Suna-genin, but he had taken both targets out by the time his teammates reached him. He was badly bleeding from his side though. They had fifteen orbs with two teams they were willing to target. The grass team had at least six orbs on them and the rock, if still alive had another three. The remaining three were hopefully still in the hands of the other fire team.

Nobu stood guard as Sachiko stitched up Itachi. Unlike a lot of teams, they didn't have anyone studying medical jutsu. They all knew how to treat wounds, although they were one of the least injured teams typically on missions. They were careful, but they also had to be. With Itachi injured, all three decided without another word that they would go to the exit. They had more than half the orbs, the chances of not having one that would open the door was extremely slim. It took another three hours of traveling and avoiding the remaining teams before they made their way to the door. Soon, they were out of the caves and in the bright sunlight of the next day.

They were led away by their sensei after telling the officials about which teams they had taken out and reporting the deaths of the other fire team. They were the first team out, leaving a team from rock, a team from fire, and the grass team all unaccounted. As they rested in the barracks, which had been provided for them, one of the other jônin from fire walked into the room. As she healed Itachi's side, she let slip that the third Fire team had been found dead. She did not know if they were killed by the team from grass or the remaining team from rock.

Their sensei brought the three genin dinner and they ate in the room, still waiting to hear what was the outcome of the first test. At the most it would be nine genin participating. They knew nothing about the other six. All of their intelligence gathering had been on their fellow Fire genin.

When dawn broke the next day, the team was brought to a room in the heart of the village. The chart on the wall showed that Nine Genin would be competing. Three from Fire, three from Rock, and three from Grass. Nobu and an extremely pale boy from the Grass country drew the extra fight. They did not gain any information on their opponents, but they did at least know they could not face each other until the semi finals at the earliest. They had one month to prepare.


	12. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

I don't have a Beta right now. If this changes, this note will change

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre _

_- Chapter 11 - _

Over the next month, Itachi's team trained in secret. They ignored their sensei's suggestion to retain the jônin that had been teaching the teams that had been killed, instead opting to continue training exactly as they had been. As a team, they snuck out into the night to try to gain intelligence on the other teams; unfortunately, it was extremely difficult. By the end of the month they knew precious little about the other six genin, but what they did know was known to all three of them. They had every intention of being three of the final four.

Finally, the day came and the first fight was Nobu against the Grass ninja.

The fight started with both genin circling each other. Weapons flew and a few lower level jutsu were used, but mostly the two were sizing each other up. Nobu had gotten a few hits on his opponent with good Kunai throwing, although his teammates knew that was still just distraction. The Grass ninja seemed oblivious for how Nobu was forcing him into a position to make his final move.

Suddenly the tide of battle turned. Itachi's hand gripped towards Sachiko's as his Sharingan saw what no one else in the arena could see. There was not anytime for anything before a senbon needle penetrated Nobu's throat. He had caught the movement of Itachi's hand from the corner of his eye and that was all that allowed him to dodge enough to turn the blow to incapacitating instead of fatal. It landed at the same time as his final move though and a chakra string trap was sprung. As Nobu fell to the arena floor, slipping into unconsciousness, the Grass ninja landed in small pieces, bathing the arena in blood and gore.

Nobu may have been the winner, but his victory came at a price. Sachiko and Itachi were left in the arena alone to face their fights as their sensei left with Nobu. The boy was fighting for his life. He may have been the winner of the battle; however, the chuunin exams were over for him … if not more.

Sachiko was next up, so Itachi took the place of their sensei, giving her a quick handgrip to prove that he knew she could do this. She was his teammate and he had to have faith she would be fine. She had proven to him that she was strong before, and she would prove it again.

As soon as the match started, Kunai flew and both shinobi in the arena were moving so fast that the spectators were having a hard time keeping up. Itachi was able to keep an eye on what was going on perfectly with his Sharingan. The trap was laid. Sachiko's opponent was chasing an illusion. The man never realized it. As he plunged a katana through the torso of the illusion, the real Sachiko took him out with a Goukakyuu no jutsu, the giant fireball technique of the Uchiha clan.

It had been a wonderful move to teach his teammates, but the real reason he had taught them the move a Uchiha must master to become a true clan member was so that he could better learn how to hinder Sasuke from learning it. The crowd was suitably impressed as the meters wide flames consumed the Grass ninja. Itachi was pleased as well. Using such an impressive jutsu to crowd enjoyment would do nothing but help Sachiko's chances for Chuunin, even if she were taken out in the next round. Somehow, he doubted it though. Itachi would not be surprised to have to face her in the final round. He was not sure what they would do if that happened.

The second battle was between a Rock ninja and the final grass ninja. This time, the rock ninja was on the short end. Grass took him out with some sort of poison gas. If Itachi had not had his Sharingan on, he would have believed it was a poison too. However, it had been an expertly hidden dagger the Grass ninja's wrist. The cut was shallow, but the poison fast acting, thus the gas cloud illusion was believed. Before he had to head down for his own match, Itachi made sure his teammate knew the true situation with that one, since she would be fighting him in the next round.

Itachi's battle was done entirely without jutsu … at least on Itachi's part. He toyed with the Rock ninja. The other unleashed jutsu after jutsu, none of them even striking a grazing blow. He did not kill his opponent. He did something more humiliating and a show of Itachi's ability. By the time Itachi was done, his opponent was unable to move. Senbon needles had been used to cause temporary paralysis. After a night or two in the hospital, the Rock ninja would be fine. He had not wanted to unnecessarily kill a Rock ninja in front of this crowd that was mainly from earth country. Especially not now that his teammate was in one of their hospitals fighting for his life.

The final Rock ninja had lucked into a free pass, with out an opponent. With only a short break, the next round of battles was slated to begin. Sachiko would be fighting the grass ninjas with the poisoned concealed blade. Itachi would be fighting the rock ninja that they had not yet seen in a battle. By the time the fights restarted, their Jônin-sensei had not yet returned, so once again the two genin were on their own.

They looked at each other and both separated. She walked down to the arena for the first fight in the semi final rounds. Itachi knew he would need to keep a close eye on her opponent. His right hand gripped the railing as he watched. Their hand signs would seem like nothing more than twitching if anyone were to be watching.

Immediately the fight was in full motion. Sachiko darted around the ring, avoiding shuriken and moving in to close combat. She had practiced for months against Itachi; she could read moves as well as anyone without a Sharingan could. She dodged blows and struck blows, but had to retreat as the Grass-nin used a jutsu to breathe out a cloud of poison gas. The slight tint of the methane in the gas drifted to her as she threw off a quick fire jutsu, once again training with a Uchiha had paid off as the plume of poison erupted into an explosion.

Sachiko used the force of the blast to increase the distance between her and her opponent. He was thrown back against the wall, but quickly recovered. Then he made his move. The crowd once again did not see it. In all honesty, Sachiko did not see it either. Only the Sharingan caught it. Without questioning Itachi's hand signal, she instantly started dodging. The explosion had covered the man somehow forming a clone that even the Sharingan could not tell apart while the actual enemy burrowed under the ground.

Sachiko had never seen a jutsu like that. She barely saw the poisoned blades coming at her. He had bet everything on that one move though, and with almost any other ninja, it would have paid off. Most did not have the dexterity to avoid the blows and hardly any had the ability to have seen the attack in the first place. However, he had nothing left to avoid the fistful of senbon needles that Sachiko unleashed. She collapsed to the ground of the arena. The crowd was stunned with the skill that had been displayed. The girl was exhausted and barely able to stand as the Grass-nin was determined to be finished and unconscious.

As Itachi walked by her on the stairs so he could fight his match, he knew the girl was done. Her chakra reserves were nearly gone. She could not fight against him; she could not even put up a façade good fight with how exhausted she was. He was so distracted by the Rock ninja waiting for him on the arena floor that it did not occur to him that she would be waiting on the balcony alone, and in no condition to be able to defend herself.

Itachi circled the Rock-nin as he tried to determine how the other man fought. He was a complete unknown in the battle. Itachi could not just take out the other man either. Since he had shown off his hand-to-hand skills in the last battle this would have to be a jutsu demonstration. He would prove he deserved the rank. As he circled the enemy ninja, he pulled his sunglasses off. He saw the smile grace Sachiko's face as he tossed them to her without even seeming to glance back. As the Rock ninja performed and Earth Jutsu, Itachi copied it instantaneously back at him. To observers it appeared that they were moving in perfect mirrors of each other.

Identical walls of rock slammed into each other, dirt rained down on the arena, momentarily hiding the two fighters from the eyes of the observers. As the dust cleared spears of identical stone slammed into the area both ninja had been occupying seconds before. The Rock ninja was throwing jutsu as fast as his hands could and Itachi was mirroring them right back. The ground was torn up as jutsu after jutsu wreaked havoc on the arena.

The crowd was cheering, and the representatives from the various countries were on the edges of their seats. This is what they had come to see. Then it seemed that Itachi missed a beat, his rock wall was a split second late and the Rock-nin rushed forward to deliver a final blow. What the man had not seen was the trap Itachi had been setting since the beginning of the match. Chakra wires which he had learned from his teammate Nobu were spring and instead of a rain of rock, this time the arena was bathed in blood.

Itachi looked up at the crowd, knowing his promotion was a guarantee. He stood, blood dripping down, coating his pale skin in red. His red eyes looked over the people. The crowd had looks of surprise still stuck on their faces. As his gaze drifted to the balcony and Sachiko, he saw an attack at the same instant she did. Three Rock ninja rushed forward. They were fast, jônin fast. Itachi did not stop and think. He threw himself forward, trying to get to her before they did. His eyes could not deceive him though. He knew he would be too late. He knew in her state, she did not have a chance.

Itachi opened his eyes what could not have been more than five minutes later. He was on his knees in the balcony. Blood was soaking through the knees of his pants. He felt a hand on his shoulder; somehow, his sensei had gotten back. They had both been too late. Sachiko was dead. Her corpse was in Itachi's arms. Her killers were in pieces in the balcony. The entire arena of thousands was quiet as Itachi picked up his fallen teammate and left the arena with his sensei.

He carried her body out of the village. The unconscious Nobu was carried by their sensei. He was extremely sick, and would never see again. The poison had destroyed his body to the point no one was sure if it had been a mercy that he had lived. Itachi carried his dead teammate, unwilling to explain to anyone why this affected him so deeply.

Yuuhi-sensei followed them, the unconscious boy in his arm had his ninja career ended. Sachiko was dead. Itachi … Itachi was less open and talkative than his sensei had ever seen him. The boy did not say a word, and had not said a word since the death of Sachiko. Yuuhi-sensei was not sure that the boy even recalled the battle where he destroyed Sachiko's attackers. Those had been the moves of someone who had seen and done much more than a child Itachi's age should have.

Yuuhi did not say anything when they crossed into fire country. He could keep up this pace of travel, even carrying the unconscious boy in his arms. Itachi was slowed by the dead body he carried. Typically a shinobi's body would have been destroyed and only the identification tags and the hitai-ate brought back to the village. It did not seem like a good idea to say anything since Itachi was not doing that.

Inside of Fire Country, they paused for the night. Itachi did not set a camp; he did not put the corpse down. He needed to rest though. Yuuhi took care of the unconscious nobu, making sure he had some liquids and was as comfortable as possible. He did not set a real camp either, just kept the unconscious boy warm through the night. Late the next evening they reached the gates of Konoha. Nobu was taken from Yuuhi-sensei's arms and the man was free to follow Itachi as he carried Sachiko's body to her family's house.

The young Uchiha was still covered in blood as he knocked on the girl's house. He looked up at Sachiko's mother as the woman answered the door. His teammate's family had been shinobi for years, on a logical level they had been prepared for this moment, but no one could ever really be prepared.

It was not until her mother took her body that Itachi let himself say something. Simply telling the girl's mother that "Sachiko was the best teammate a person could ever have." He meant it to. No one would ever take her place. Her and Nobu and himself, they had been an unstoppable team. He let Yuuhi-sensei lead him back to the Uchiha compound. He did not say anything. He would never be able to say anything. The only person he thought he might be able to tell was dead. His team was destroyed. He did not care that he was a Chuunin now. Everything that had been good in his life was over. He had not been able to keep his teammates safe. He deserved this. He deserved his family. He deserved his father. He was a failure. He walked in silence to his room as his mother spoke in her concerned tone to his jônin-sensei. He heard his father arrive and talk with the man as well. He did not care enough to even listen to what was said. He did the only thing he could and willed himself into an oblivion of exhaustion. He did not care if he woke up, he just had to stop feeling anything for a few hours.


	13. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

I don't have a Beta right now. If this changes, this note will change

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 12 -_

Itachi stayed in his room, not moving after the sun rose. It was nearly unheard of for the boy to not have been long gone by that time. Breakfast was served, and Itachi remained in his room. It was almost sunset by the time someone walked into Itachi's room. His cousin Shisui sat down. The slightly older boy did not say anything. He simply pulled a honing stone out and started to sharpen his blades as he sat there. The sun set. The moon rose. Still, he continued to sit and sharpen the blades. It was after midnight before Itachi looked at him. The broken boy did not say anything as he watched the rhythmic motions of the weapons being sharpened.

A few hours later, Shisui leaned back, putting his blades away. He had not expected Itachi to remain silent this long. "Are you hungry?" He knew the boy had not eaten since before the final round of the chuunin exams, days ago. Itachi's only response was to roll over on his futon, turning his back to his cousin. Shisui stood and walked to the kitchen, returning with some food that Itachi's mother had left for them. He also carried in two bowls of warm miso soup and a pot of tea. He hoped that the warm liquids would have enough aroma to force Itachi to admit he was hungry.

Shisui sat down and started to sip his soup. He waited as he watched Itachi's shoulder's tighten. Then finally, Itachi sat up and moved closer to the food. Without a word, Itachi reached out to the second bowl of soup. His eyes never left Shisui but he drank the liquid in the bowl. The small bits of tofu and wakame the first food he had eaten since he last ate with Sachiko.

Silently, Itachi and Shisui ate the meal that had been left for them. They did not speak and soon Itachi lay back down on the futon, still not willing to talk. He had been awake for much too long and his chakra had been burned off in the exams and then the fast-paced desperate return to Konoha. He fell into a fitful sleep as Shisui watched over him.

Itachi did not toss and turn like a civilian would. He was a shinobi and no matter how fitful his sleep, it would not show. However, under Shisui's gaze, his sleep was fitful and broken. He had forgotten how difficult it had always been to sleep in his room. He had grown so used to being away on long missions with his team. He had grown accustomed to sleeping under the watchful gaze of people he trusted. He could not sleep as well under the gaze of another Uchiha. Even his cousin had proven that the clan's taint ran deep. How his cousin could stand what was going on, Itachi could not understand.

The sun rose, gentle light drifting into the room, but Itachi continued to try to rest. His mother walked into the room, replacing the dirty dishes of their meal last night with a fresh breakfast. She left the room again with nothing more than a worried look at her eldest son. She did not understand her son's actions. Yes, he had lost a teammate. That girl was by no means the first teammate though that her son had lost. Why did he react like that to her death?

Itachi and Shisui did not leave his room until the day for Sachiko's funeral. Nobu was still unconscious, but Yuuhi-sensei was there. The dark haired man walked over to where Itachi and his cousin were standing and placed a hand on the young boy's shoulder. He did not know why the boy was taking it so hard either, he knew his team had been close; however, he had seen Itachi after the deaths of other teammates and nothing had affected him like this.

After the funeral, Itachi surprised his sensei. When the older man walked over to say a few words to the girl's parent's, Itachi walked with him. Yuuhi knew his words of condolence were hopelessly recycled. No one expected any different though, and he went through the formalities. Yes, he had genuinely like the young girl and thought she had a lot of potential; however, he had been to too many funerals. Between the war and the demon fox, funerals were now just an obligation. He was more concerned with the living.

Itachi was not lead away from Sachiko's mother. When she looked at him, he took a deep breath. It was so uncharacteristic to see the Uchiha heir as unbalanced as he was. "Tsukada-san. Sachi-chan always shared the lunch you made her with us, so Nobu and I would know…" He paused for a moment, unsure of how to continue, "How important we were to her that she would share her mother." He looked up at the woman, not with red Sharingan eyes that he had grown accustomed to wearing every day, but with his pitch black eyes. Those were eyes he didn't let people see, because they couldn't hide the pain like the red eyes could. Their eyes met and pain met pain. Her hands reached out and he fell into her embrace. Someone else had known how special her daughter was.

When Itachi walked away, it was with insistences that he stop by when ever he wanted. For a moment, he knew what it was like to have a mother that cared. Sachiko's mother had cared for her daughter, deeply. Sachiko had trusted the woman enough to tell her mother what had happened on the mission that had scarred her so deeply. The woman was warm and caring, a direct contrast to his own mother. She was how a mother should be. He could not help wondering what his life would have been like if he had been born into Sachiko's family. He would not have had the Sharingan, but he would have been … happy. Despite everything, Sachiko had been happy. Somehow, it was possible to be a good shinobi and be happy, that opportunity robbed from him by his family.

Yuuhi-sensei walked Shisui and Itachi back to the Uchiha compound. The older man's hand still on Itachi's shoulder. He had not expected that display from his quiet student. He had expected the act that all Uchiha fell into -- cold, impersonal and formal. He left them at Itachi's house, whispering to the boy that if he ever wanted to talk, to come and find him. Itachi had been given a three-week reprieve from missions and training after the events at the exam. The now chuunin was without obligations for a short period of time. The gesture was intended to be a kindness, in reality it was a burden the young boy could barely handle. To be trapped in that house was his greatest fear. Shisui was by his side constantly, making sure the boy ate. Other than occasional appearances by his mother, he didn't see another living soul for the next week.

It was early in the morning several days after the funeral when little hands pushed open Itachi's door. Coal black eyes looked up at him. His little brother walked into the room as Shisui and Itachi watched. "Big brother? Can you help me train?" Itachi looked at his little brother. The boy still had his toddler fat. His hair in a perpetual state of mess no matter how their mother tried to fix it. That was when Itachi was reminded of why he was doing everything. He was not doing it for himself; he was doing it for that little innocent child.

Itachi kneeled down in front of the little boy and poked him in the forehead. The look of surprise assured Itachi that his little brother was still untouched. There was no fear, only confusion in those dark black pools. "Not today. Ask me tomorrow." With that, he stood and ruffled the boy's hair. He had training to do. He had his rank of Chuunin now. Once he had six months of active duty and the requisite missions he would be able to apply for the ANBU forces. It would mean never having another team and giving up his jônin sensei, but it would be worth it. He would gain power and skill and perhaps the ability to save his little brother. With that, Itachi left the house. From his stance and demeanor a person would never know that something terrible had happened to Itachi, it was hidden and buried deep in the young Uchiha's soul.

He walked to the training field. He was going to take advantage of these weeks off to train harder than he had ever trained before. When he returned to active duty, he would take every mission he could. He would throw himself into his quest to make himself better and stronger until even his father would be proud of him … they he would make that man pay. Itachi dedicated himself again to gaining enough power to defeat his father. Someday soon, he would no longer fear the man because Fugaku would lie dead at his feet. Blood would wash away the stain on his soul.


	14. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

I don't have a Beta right now. If this changes, this note will change

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 13 -_

Two months later and Itachi returned to active duty. His former jônin sensei still trained him, but the man was already taking a new Genin team. Jônin who could train genin were still in short supply, so he was getting a new team as soon as the graduations happened in the next two weeks. Itachi had been added as an extra person to several teams in order to have a full team for missions. He did not consider those people teammates though. No his teammates were never going on a mission with him again. The people he was assigned with were just fellow leaf shinobi. He treated them with respect and always carried out his portion of the mission flawlessly. No one could complain. They did comment on the Uchiha heir being even more closed off than they had expected of a Uchiha.

He had also managed to grab an occasional solo mission. He made a point to always finish those perfectly and a head of schedule in the hopes that he would get more missions like that. He turned in his mission reports right away and no matter how difficult made them seem as if he had no difficulties with any of them, no matter how hard those missions really were. He was happiest on his own. He was away from his family and away from others that he could not trust.

On the four-month anniversary of the chuunin exams, Itachi received the news that he and his former sensei had been hoping for. Nobu had regained consciousness. After turning in his latest mission report, he excused himself from the makeshift team he had been placed on. He arrived at the hospital to see his sensei already there. Nobu was propped up in bed. Fresh flowers were on the table by the bed. As soon as Itachi entered the room, he knew that Nobu would never be a ninja again. The bandages had been taken from his eyes.

Itachi was a Uchiha, their eyes were everything. Without their eyes, the clan would have lost power long ago. Without their eyes the clan was weak. From their earliest days, they were protective of their eyes, knowing how delicate and vital those two small organs were. Nobu's … they were dead. The poison that had coursed through his body had completely destroyed them. Itachi sat there, mostly silent, but his teammate was used to that. Their old sensei covered the lull in conversation with his own talking. Itachi had never been expected to take part in casual conversation – they had had Sachiko for that.

By the time Itachi left Nobu's room, the pain he had bottled up inside had again risen to the surface. He felt her loss as clearly as if it had just happened again. He remembered carrying her body back to Konoha. He took a wrong turn in the hospital as he tried to leave. Guards quickly blocked his way, but not before those eyes of his caught a sign of the name on a clipboard a medical ninja was carrying. His old sensei, Morino-sensei.

Itachi gasped and looked at the guards, they were ANBU … he could not bluff his way past them. The only way in would be to attempt the truth. "Morino-sensei. He was rescued?" As he spoke, another ANBU appeared from the room that was being guarded. This ANBU had a shock of white hair and Itachi immediately recognized his as Hatake Kakashi. Holding up a hand, the masked teenage waved off the two guards. "The Uchiha was there was Morino-san was taken."

Walking past the guards and Kakashi, Itachi entered the room. His old sensei was there. The man was covered in bandages, and what wasn't wrapped was burnt and scared. Whatever had happened, the man was badly tortured. He would carry those scars for the rest of his life. Itachi looked down at the large man in the bed, captivity and torture had caused his frame to become gaunt, but it was the same strong man that had led him and his first team.

Morino Ibiki opened his eyes. Seeing one of his genin brought him some peace as he closed his eyes again. Itachi though, seeing his sensei whom at one point he had thought to be all powerful, brought down to this. It was too much. In his already stressed mental condition, he could not handle it. Eyes flashed to red and he fled from the room. He ran out a back door from the hospital and started just running through the town. He was unsure of his destination until he found himself at Sachiko's house.

Not thinking, he pounded on the door. When Sachiko's mother answered the door, Itachi was fighting back tears. He had kept everything all bottled inside for so long. He was still only ten years old. It did not matter that he was a chuunin or that he had been a shinobi for years. It did not even matter that he had taken so many lives in battle. Right now, he was a boy, alone and scared. His team was destroyed. Sachiko was dead and Nobu probably would have been better off dead than in this condition. He had even failed his old sensei.

Sachiko's mother brought him into the house. When he begged her not to tell his mother that he was there, she complied. She had never seen a Uchiha in this state. No one had seen the Uchiha heir like this. As tears flowed down his face, he explained how Sachiko's death was his fault. How it was the end of a string of disasters brought about by his weakness. It was his fault that he had not activated the Sharingan sooner. If he had, he would have been able to save Morino-sensei from being taken and then the man would not have been tortured. His original team would have been intact instead of the Inuzuka girl dead and the Shiranui boy serving food at a restaurant. If he had been stronger, he wouldn't have been injured in those caves, and they would have been able to take out everyone else, and no one would have died in the final exam.

It was his fault. His warning must have been too late to Nobu. It would have been better had he never given any warning than to see his friend in that condition. He explained how he should have known that Sachiko was too weak to defend herself after her second battle. He explained how he should have been faster and been able to save Sachiko. It was all his fault, yet for some reason, Sachiko's mother was hugging him and saying it wasn't his fault.

It was two hours later before he left her house. By the time he left, no one could have known that the stoic Uchiha heir had cracked. No one could tell he had cried like the child he was. He had lost the person he trusted most in this world, but it was not his fault. The girl's own mother could not blame him. Part of him knew if he had been stronger things would have been different, but it was not his fault. Rock ninja had killed her, and rock ninja would pay.

His conviction to bring about the destruction of Rock lasted until he reached his house. Seeing Sasuke practicing his kunai skills reminded him, there was evil just as vile, if not worse lurking right there in Konoha.

Life continued in the village as if nothing had happened. Every day, Itachi either trained with his cousin Shisui, or he visited Nobu in the hospital, or he went on a mission. Five months after his return to active duty, he had gone on more missions as a Chuunin than was required to submit an application to ANBU. By the time the six-month mark was reached, Itachi had celebrated his eleventh birthday and turned in his application to be one of the youngest ANBU members ever.

As expected his first application was turned down and he was encouraged to try again in another six months. Another six months of relentless training and missions and he found himself in the basement of the Torture and Interrogation building stripped of his shirt as the bright red tattoo was added to his arm. It was unusual, but not unheard of, for chuunin to be accepted into ANBU. That he had been accepted, not only as a chuunin, but before he had even turned twelve was a testament to his hard work and skill. Soon the red tattoo was finished and Itachi was given his mask. He looked at the feline visage looking back at him. The red marks on the white porcelain matched the Sharingan eyes he had activated near constantly now.

As a new recruit to ANBU, he would be paired with a more experience Shinobi. He did not know who, and he had no say in the matter. The pairing would last for another six months where he and his mentor would take missions as a pair and as part of a larger team. He would be taught secrets known only to the special forces of Konoha from that mentor and be guided through his assimilation to the group.

Itachi prepared himself for the worst. He was expecting the mentor to be another Uchiha. Since so many of their skills were dependent on the Sharingan, it only made sense for Uchiha to mentor other Uchiha. It was another thing that kept the clan close to one another. It kept their secrets safe that each Uchiha's destiny seemed to be linked back into the clan. He waited for his mentor to arrive. The ANBU uniform felt good. The tight black clothing moved with him effortlessly. The sandals had near perfect traction even without any chakra coursing through them. The armor even felt like it moved well. He was not sure how much real protection that armor provided, but it seemed to match his body weight well.

The clothes were definitely custom crafted to each member's dimensions. While it would surprise some people that ANBU was able to get exact measurements for a new recruit, Itachi expected it. Several members of the Uchiha clan were in ANBU, and to know sizes was nothing for their eyes. The fact another Uchiha had spied on his at some point to get his measurements did distress him though. There was nothing that could be done about it though, although he was determined to figure out how the ANBU could watch the village so effectively. He had not sensed anyone watching him, and that disturbed him.

The door opened and the Uchiha heir's eyes flew to the man walking in. He had not heard the other approach. He had not sensed the other. Itachi's eyes immediately reverted to the Sharingan and red eyes met mismatched eyes of blue and red. Hatake Kakashi looked back at him from the other side of a porcelain dog mask. For a moment, Itachi thought the other was there to lead him to his mentor – then he realized he had escaped being assigned to another Uchiha.

Kakashi led him from the room, walking through the halls as he started to show his young charge around. The people in charge had thought it best that Itachi be assigned to another ANBU member that not only knew how to use the Sharingan but also knew what it was like to loose teammates that were close. Although Itachi thought that his first rejection was due to a lack of experience, the true reason was that they were worried about his mental stability with having lost so many teammates. Also, the boy's reaction to the death of his teammate Sachiko had struck alarms in many people's heads.

However, in the past six months the relationship that seemed to be forming between Itachi and Sachiko's mother was seen as a positive. To see the boy forming a bond where he showed up at the woman's house occasionally to drink tea in her garden was approved of. Yes, ANBU members had been keeping an eye on the boy ever since he had placed in his first application. Everyone knew it was only a matter of time before the Uchiha heir was accepted into the organization, so the people in charge wanted to make sure they had as much information on the boy as possible before they allowed him within their ranks.

All of Itachi's training was monitored, his interactions with people in the village. Many of his missions even had someone on them that reported back to the ANBU leaders. The only place that Itachi was not monitored was when he was in the Uchiha compound. Too many former ANBU lived in that area and too many pairs of observant eyes would be watching for them to risk trespassing on Uchiha ground.

The next two weeks seemed to fly by. Now that he had been accepted into ANBU, Itachi's schedule was hectic and erratic. He worked in training with his cousin still, and he found time to spend with his little brother, however he spent a lot of time away from the compound. His mission schedule was classified now, so his father had no way of knowing when he was on a mission and when he was not. Itachi spent many nights away from his room to go and train in the woods instead of being where that man could find him.

This did not go unnoticed by his mentor. When they were training, Kakashi stopped the practice. The Hatake boy was not one to often talk, however, he had to say something. "You are not getting enough rest at night."

Itachi did not let his face betray a single emotion. He had grown too used to dealing with other members of his clan for the Hatake's Sharingan eye to be able to discern his emotions. "I have never slept much."

Kakashi nodded. "My window is always open. There is a bedroll on the floor." He did not know why the boy did not want to stay at his house. He had not been able to figure it out yet. Since that day Itachi had run from his room in a panic, Kakashi had been watching the boy. Whenever he was gone from the village, the young Uchiha was more relaxed. When he returned to the village, that stress went up. When he left the Uchiha compound in the morning … or sometimes the night, it was quickly. He never was in a hurry to return though. Something was causing the boy not to want to be there, and Kakashi was determined to figure out what. This boy was his student; he was responsible for him now. He owed it to Obito to keep Itachi safe.

Kakashi let the training resume. He knew he could not push the Itachi too far before the boy would completely close up. He knew it well because Itachi reminded him so much of himself when he was younger. They had both been thrust into the shinobi life at a young age. They were both sticklers for the rules. They both spent more time at the memorial stone than anyone their age should. In many ways, they were alike, but the darkness that seemed to surround the Uchiha was more ominous than anything that had plagued Kakashi.

It was three nights later when Kakashi was awoken to the sound of someone landing on his windowsill. The only reason the other had gotten so close was that he was so used to Itachi's chakra after all the training they did together. He knew that Itachi realized he was awake, so he opened his eyes and gestured to the bedroll. True enough, there was a bedroll in the corner of the room as if Kakashi had expected someone to show up at night. In fact, he hadn't known, but he had hoped. Itachi was cold and wet as he walked into the room. Kakashi had not been expecting that. "The shower is in there." He gestured at the bathroom. He had no idea why the Uchiha showed up freezing cold and ripping river water.

Itachi walked into the small bathroom without a single word. As Kakashi heard the water running, he dug around for the smallest pair of clothes he had. While Kakashi had always had a slim frame, Itachi's was even more slender. He opened the door to the bathroom and set the clothes inside along with a towel. With that, he climbed back into bed. If Itachi wanted to talk, he would talk. If the boy did not want to talk, at least Kakashi's student would have a safe and dry place to sleep.

As expected, Itachi emerged from the bathroom silently. His damp training clothes were draped across the back of a chair and then the bedroll was laid out on the floor. Kakashi was not sure how he had missed that before. The boy's clothes had been damp, as if he had pulled them on while his body was wet. They were not wet as if the boy had ended up in the river fully clothed. Whatever was going on, he was determined to figure it out. However, tonight he was going to let the boy sleep. He saw Itachi climb into the blankets, knowing full well that Kakashi was watching him. Itachi did not care. All he wanted was to get some sleep somewhere safe. This was not the same type of safe as he had grown accustomed to back when Nobu and Sachiko were his teammates, but it was as close as he could get now. He closed his eyes and was soon in a deep sleep, able to relax since he was away from his family.


	15. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

I don't have a Beta right now. If this changes, this note will change

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 14 -_

In the pale light of morning, Kakashi awoke before the young Uchiha. In fact, his student seemed to be sound asleep even as the sun rose and illuminated the sky through the single window of the apartment. Even as Kakashi sat up in bed, Uchiha Itachi slept oblivious to the movements of the other in the room. The boy was curled in a ball in the bedroll on the floor, slightly tangled in the sheets in a way that would make getting out of it difficult even for a trained Ninja. The boy seemed to be sleeping deeply, not at all how a ninja should sleep, not at all the light sleep ready to defend himself, no this was sound asleep, the sleep a ninja could never allow themselves. To think of not just a shinobi, but an Uchiha, and a Chuunin and not only that, but an ANBU member, was sleeping like that indicated the boy had to be exhausted beyond the ability to stay on guard.

Kakashi stood up and quietly walked to the bathroom trying not to wake up the young boy. It seemed he had a lot of time this morning before his student would expect him to be ready for training, so he did not rush getting ready. He would even delay going to the memorial stone until the Uchiha woke up, he knew the child also visited the stone nearly as much as he did. When he emerged from the bathroom, cleaned and wearing a fresh ANBU uniform and ready to start his day in service to the village, the boy was still sleeping, his arms now pulled over his head.

Kakashi even was able to cook a simple breakfast before the boy woke up. When the boy was still asleep when breakfast was ready, Kakashi decided he had to wake up his student. Kakashi kneeled down next to the sleeping boy, very careful and on guard to block any attacks. It was never safe to wake up a ninja, to surprise them in such a way, normally it was never needed. Normally a ninja could easily be woken from a distance with the quietest of noises. The change in Kakashi's breathing when he had woken up should have been enough to wake the young Uchiha. This time, Kakashi had to kneel and gently touch the Uchiha's shoulder, shaking him lightly to wake him up.

As Kakashi had expected the boy did not take being woken up well; however, Kakashi had expected to be attacked. He had been prepared for fists or kicks or even weapons. He had even been prepared for the boy to instinctively react with a jutsu even. What he did not expect was for Itachi to curl up tighter into a ball and whisper, "Please don't touch me."

Kakashi froze. Those had not been words spoken by an ANBU member, they had been spoken by a frightened child. The Uchiha seemed to be acting like a four or five year old, not the eleven-year-old battle tested shinobi that Itachi really was. Kakashi looked down at the boy as Itachi's eyes flew open. He saw something he thought he would never see in those black eyes before they changed to red. He saw fear and pain in those eyes before they closed off. The glare the younger man gave him left Kakashi without any doubts that no more would be known today.

Kakashi stood and turned to the simple breakfast he had set out on the small table. "I cooked." He moved to serve the food. The two shinobi ate breakfast in silence, Kakashi carefully watching the young Uchiha and Itachi watching Kakashi. They both knew that something had been said that would not be forgotten by either of them. Neither knew how that was going to affect anything between them. Kakashi did not know what the words had meant, and Itachi not sure of what he had said exactly. He knew he had said something as he awoke from a nightmare, and knowing it was a nightmare about his father, whatever he had said could not have been good.

That morning they went to the Memorial stone together, two shinobi in the shadow of that dark stone. That morning set the routine for the rest of their time as mentor and student. Every morning at sunrise, the two met at the memorial stone before going to train or going to report for a mission. They were like each other's shadow, as the mentor relationship in ANBU was meant to be. However, Itachi did not say anything more about what had happened that morning. As close as they were, there was still a distance between them that left Kakashi feeling as if he were miles away from the boy no matter how close they grew.

Kakashi still left the window open and the bedroll in the corner. Occasionally, he was awoken by a shadow appearing on his windowsill. Sometimes Itachi was dripping in river water. Sometimes he seemed like he had come straight from dinner. Sometimes Itachi looked exceptionally pale. However Itachi arrived, he would take a shower at Kakashi's and then crawl into the bedroll. The boy never slept as soundly again as he did that first night though.

They continued to train and go on missions, all the while Kakashi tried to figure out what was wrong with the Uchiha while still providing the boy a safe place to stay away from whatever is wrong. Kakashi could not figure out much more, and was not sure who exactly the boy was hiding from until he encountered Uchiha Fugaku in the Hokage tower. Kakashi was returning from turning in ANBU reports and Fugaku was on his way to a meeting with the Hokage when the two saw each other.

Fugaku held up a hand to Kakashi as he approached the silver haired man. "Hatake-san, a word."

Kakashi nodded and bowed deeply. His family had always been known for having manners … at least before his family had become known for betrayal. Kakashi was not going to give the elder Uchiha a reason to be displeased. "Of course, Uchiha-sama." The man was the head of one of the most powerful clans and the father of his student, respect was the best and only option in the situation.

"I am concerned about the amount of nights my son spends on missions." Fugaku's eyes narrowed as he looked at Kakashi, as if watching for any sign of a lie, or even perhaps as a sign of a threat.

Without missing a beat, Kakashi bowed again, "I will inform my superiors of your concerns. However, our duty is but to serve the village no matter the hours or nights away." He had been trained for years as a shinobi; he was good at hiding his true thoughts and motivations. He could lie to the most observant of people; however, lying to a Uchiha was always a risk.

With that exchange of words, the two men left in their separate directions, Kakashi knew his student was hiding from his father. He did not know what it meant, but now he thought that he might know enough to start watching closer and figuring out what was happening. Whatever it was, he was worried about his student. He was worried like Obito had been worried. Kakashi changed his direction at the thought of his dead teammate and hurried to the memorial. If only Obito were still around to really talk to. If only he could ask why Obito had been worried about Itachi, he might have the answers to this mystery. He stared blankly at the memorial, Obito was dead and no matter how many times Kakashi traced his old teammates name with his finger, Obito could not tell him the answers. Whatever the boy had known about the Uchiha clan had died with him that day in Rock country.

That night as expected, Itachi appeared on Kakashi's window. This time, however, the boy looked even worse than he normally did. His skin was pale with his face showing the faintest traces of fresh bruising. He was dripping cold river water, his clothes soaked as if he had been in the water completely. He looked more like a corpse pulled from icy waters than an elite shinobi.

Kakashi did not hide the look of surprise. The boy's eyes were pitch black, unlike their normal red. The fear in those black pools was obvious as Itachi walked towards Kakashi's bathroom the same steps the young Uchiha had taken countless other nights. Before Itachi reached the bathroom, Kakashi had weapons in hand. Two more figures jumped in through the open window only seconds after Kakashi had detected heir approach.

Itachi spun in place, his eyes instantly going to red as Fugaku crossed the distance between him and his son. The Uchiha clan leader might not take missions still, his time spent instead was spent in service to his clan and to the police force, but the man had once been a jônin and ANBU and of course the strongest Uchiha of his time. Nothing else would be accepted of a clan leader of the Uchiha. In his confused state, Itachi did not have a chance against his father. As quick as Itachi could throw weapons, Fugaku caught them or deflected them. He grabbed his disorientated son, throwing him hard against the wall of Kakashi's apartment.

The other Uchiha that had arrived with Fugaku stood between Kakashi and the father and Son, blocking Kakashi from being able to race to Itachi's rescue. "This is a family matter. Stay out of it Hatake." The second Uchiha might not be strong enough to defeat Kakashi, but he would have been more than capable of keeping Kakashi away from the fight between father and son for the few moments it lasted.

Itachi's eyes reverted to black pools as he dropped his weapons to the floor. This time the black orbs held no fear, now they just looked hollow, as if Itachi were a captured animal who had no chance of obtaining freedom.

Fugaku stood up and informed everyone in the room of the official story, of course it was solely for Kakashi's benefit. "Itachi was adversely affected by a genjutsu when training with his cousin. We followed him. He will not bother you again, Hatake-san." Despite the implausibility of a Uchiha, especially one as skilled as Itachi, being affected so strongly by a genjutsu, the lie was delivered with perfect believability.

Without waiting for a reply and before Kakashi could do anything, the two Uchiha took Itachi away. As they disappeared with the boy between them, Kakashi knew whatever was going on with Itachi was even more serious than he could have thought. Something very serious was happening to affect the boy as much as he had been. In that moment, all the signs that Kakashi had missed before and all the questions he had not asked of Itachi came rushing back at him. This was definitely serious.

That night, Kakashi knew he would not be able to get any sleep with all these unanswered questions running through his mind. The matter with his student, or most probably former student now, was weighing too heavily on him. He got dressed and carefully left the room, making sure no one was observing him. He was determined to start getting some answers about the boy and the best person to start with was Itachi's last sensei.

Yuuhi-sensei lived in a small house on the outskirts of town. The Yuuhi clan was never a very powerful one, but they were respected by the shinobi of the village. Not many clans specialized in Genjutsu in the hidden village, so their expertise in the art of illusions was often valued. It was late at night, but not exceptionally late. However, it was definitely past time when one would go and visit people you did not know well. As Kakashi approached the house, he made no effort to hide his chakra. When he knocked on the heavy wooden door, his arrival had already been announced to the shinobi inside. The door was opened by Yuuhi-sensei himself, and the older man welcomed Kakashi into his house.

Kakashi had not spoken to the man since Itachi had been accepted into the ANBU. The last time they spoke had been a very brief meeting during which Kakashi found out some information about Itachi in order to be better prepared for the young Uchiha and training him to be ANBU. That simple interview had been very short. At the time, Kakashi didn't think too much of the older man's mention of Itachi forming a bond with his teammates, he thought it was simply natural that the Uchiha took some time to warm up to the other two genin and then had formed a strong bond. He was not even concerned at the older man's explanation of how Itachi had reacted when his team had been destroyed in front of his eyes with one member dead and the other near mortally wounded.

Kakashi understood what it was like to loose one's team in such a manner. He knew what it was like first hand to grieve for a team and believe that it was through your actions or lack of actions that your teammates had been injured. It did not surprise him at all that Itachi had gone looking for ANBU as a way to get away from that. Kakashi had done the same thing, throwing himself into work in order to forget the painful lose of his team. Without a word, Kakashi followed the older man into the house, they both knew that there was only one reason that he would be here in the middle of the night. It had to be in order to talk about Itachi, since it was the only connection the two shinobi shared.

Following the other man into a small traditional room overlooking the garden, Kakashi caught a glimpse of a young woman with long dark hair. He had forgotten the man had a daughter not much different in age than himself. His eyes saw her red eyes, not Sharingan eyes, but the genjutsu eyes of the Yuuhi clan. In a flash, she was gone, before Kakashi could even remember the girl's name. They hadn't been in the same years at the academy, in fact, Kakashi didn't know a lot of people the same age as him, between the war and the fox, most of the children rushed through the academy and then thrust into battle like he was had ended up on the memorial stone. Those that remained were almost entirely in ANBU.

He sat down in the chair where the older man gestured and waited for the other man to be seated before asking. "Yuuhi-san, I am sorry for bothering you at this late hour." He watched the older man sizing him up, knowing that there had to be a serious reason for the Hatake to have knocked on his door late at night. "It concerns your former student, Uchiha Itachi."

The older man looked up as his dark haired daughter walked in. She was clad simply in a pale Yukata with her hair drawn back into a bun. If not for the lethal edge to her grace, Kakashi would have been able to forget that the girl was also a trained shinobi. She set the delicate glasses on the small table between the two men and poured each man tea without saying a word. Her manners were those of a proper young woman, a proper daughter in her father's house. She set the teapot down on the table and stood after pouring the tea and bowed, the older man smiled at his daughter, "Thank you, Kurinai-chan. We will be fine on our own and you have a mission in the morning."

With a nod and a smile, she left the room, he father watching her leave. Once his daughter was out of earshot, he turned back to Kakashi. "Has something happened to Itachi?" He may no longer be the boy's sensei, but in the time Itachi and the team had been his students, he had grown very fond of the boy, fond of all three of his students. The concern he still had for the only one of those students to still be a shinobi was obvious in his voice.

Kakashi was not one to normally delay saying something, but he honestly was not sure what to say. He took a sip of the tea before looking up at the older man, "I am not sure if something happened, or is happening." He then proceeded to tell the other man what had been happening. He explained how many nights that Itachi would come to his apartment to sleep on his floor instead of sleeping in the comfortable Uchiha compound. Itachi's family was the head family of one of the most powerful clans in Konoha, the boy's room was probably luxurious compared to Kakashi's economical little efficiency apartment, but it was on Kakashi's floor that Itachi was able to sleep.

Kakashi told the other man about the encounter with Fugaku, and how Itachi was lying to his own father and leader of his clan about being on missions -- a luxury the boy never had when he was on a genin team. Back then, Fugaku would have been able to keep track of when genin were on a mission, especially a team with his own son on it. Being ANBU meant that no one outside of ANBU knew when people were on mission. For the first time, Itachi could lie about when he was and was not inside the village. The question the two men did not know the answer to was why.

They compared observances, how Itachi was near always distant. The only person Itachi seemed to have formed a close bond with was his dead teammate, the question was why her instead of someone else. At the time, Itachi had only been ten, so the fact she was a girl should not have contributed to that friendship, plus it didn't seem to be based on anything besides a deep trust. Also, Yuuhi-sensei said it seemed more like it was protective, near brotherly and sisterly in fact with how the two had acted. While neither man had a difficulty believing Itachi could be protective of the girl, the surprise was how protective the girl was of him. By everyone's assessment, Itachi had been stronger in almost every regard than the female genin member of that team; yet she was often the one being protective of him.

It was then that Kakashi learned about the mission where that bond was formed. With the girl dead for nearly a year now, the portions that she had told her teacher in confidence were now spoken of. It was assumed that she had told Itachi about the mission where she had been raped. They also assumed that was the beginning of the odd protectiveness between them.

When Kakashi told Yuuhi-sensei about Fugaku's excuse for why Itachi had come to Kakashi's apartment that night, the man stood up. "If my former student is suffering from the after effects of a genjutsu, as his former teacher, it is my duty to take a look, right?"

Kakashi nodded. "It was obviously lucky that I randomly ran into you, since the chances of finding a Genjutsu specialist are so low."

With a smirk at the lie, knowing they would both be much more believable once they reached the Uchiha compound then men stood up and started to leave. Under his breath thought, Yuuhi-sensei added, "And if anyone believes any student of mine would have an effect from a genjutsu like that, they are crazy."

They made their way through the village, heading to the Uchiha district. When they reached the area, they knew they were being watched. They did not try to hide though, they simply walked through the narrow streets until they reached Itachi's house. Kakashi hated being there. The place carried too many memories of when Obito had been on his team. It carried to many reminders that Kakashi had failed his teammate and in return, Obito had given him his own eye. That eye had saved Kakashi's life countless times -- Obito had saved his life. He owed his old teammate so much, and this might be his chance to repay that favor.

They reached the door and Yuuhi-sensei knocked. They both knew everyone knew they were there. No attempts to hide Chakra had been made, and the two had had a hidden escort since the moment they crossed into Uchiha territory. Fugaku answered the door. The false politeness was obvious, as if the man was not attempting to hide it. Suspicions that their arrival had been monitored and their target had been informed were confirmed when the Uchiha head seemed to have been expecting his son's old sensei.

"Fugaku gave a shallow bow of greeting, he knew his status was much higher than either of his guests, but formalities would be followed. "Yuuhi-san, Hatake-san, I had not expected visitors at this hour of the night."

Yuuhi was not off put by the reception at all, he had not expected the Uchiha's to greet them any different. He bowed, deeper and longer as a show of respect for the Uchiha leader. "Uchiha-sama, I must apologize sincerely for interrupting you at this late hour; however, I had encountered Hatake-san when I was turning in some important paperwork and he mentioned that my former student had been adversely affected by a genjutsu. I was hoping you would let me take a look at him, being as it was a genjutsu. Training injuries can be very serious, and we would hate to see any lasting effects have a bearing on Itachi-kun's performance in his upcoming missions."

Fugaku looked between the two shinobi on his porch. The excuse to see his son was perfect. To refuse their admittance would seem suspicious. He stepped aside, "Itachi is resting, so I must ask to keep it brief." The two were led back to where Itachi's room was. When they arrived only a single light was on in the room. In the pale light, they could see Itachi on his futon with his mother kneeling by him, a damp cloth in her hand as she moistened her son's forehead.

She looked up as the two men entered and Yuuhi-sensei walked over to the boy's bedside. He kneeled down with a few words of apology to Itachi's mother. The man's hands reached out to open the boy's eyes and then stared into them. Standing behind Itachi, Kakashi uncovered his Sharingan eye. The boy was in much different shape than when he had been taken from his apartment earlier.

Yuuhi-sensei let the boy's eyes close and stood up. "He should recover with rest." He smiled and nodded as Itachi's mother thanked him for taking a look at her son. Both men left the room, being escorted out. Yuuhi-sensei gave the Uchiha leader a few suggestions for speeding the boy's recovery. They walked out of the house, leaving behind the scene one would expect if a child had been stuck down by a Genjutsu in practice. A worried mother tending to her son, a concerned father doing everything that could be done … but something was wrong. They left the Uchiha compound with their invisible escort still in place. Yuuhi-san walked Kakashi back to his apartment, waiting until they were sure their escort was gone to say, "There is no way anyone in that condition made it to your apartment. There is no way. That was done after the fact. They both knew they did not have any proof, and without proof anything more they attempted to do would only endanger the very one they were trying to protect. On that day an alliance was formed between the two though, they were going to figure out what was going on.


	16. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

I don't have a Beta right now. If this changes, this note will change

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 15 -_

In the days after his removal from Kakashi's apartment, Itachi could barely recall how the genjutsu accident had occurred. Before his recollection of events became too clear, he found himself spending more and more time with his cousin, to the point of the boy actually moving into Itachi's room. To Itachi, this was a welcome change. With Shisui living in his room, the visits by his father during the night had stopped. Each morning when the two boys woke up as the sun rose, Itachi's father had already left for work at the police station. When they returned from the day of training, Fugaku was either still at work, or he was asleep in bed after a long day's work. Neither of the two hardly saw the man.

Itachi's father had never worked this much before, as far as Itachi could remember, and that included the aftermath of the Fox attack. Perhaps when the war was going on the man had put in these types of hours, but Itachi had been so little back then, that he was not sure how the two compared. Due to the lingering effects of the genjutsu, Itachi had been placed on a two-month medical leave from his duties to the village and ANBU. In that time, Itachi trained nearly every day with Shisui since his cousin was going to be taking his chuunin test with a last minute team. Not all the teams going into the exam had been together before the test, some were just groups of three genin who had the individual abilities. Often times, Uchiha were ready to test before the other genin they were teamed up with out of their academy graduating classes, so it was not unusual for a Uchiha such as Shisui to test apart from his team. If Shisui made it, then his team would get a new member, if he did not then when his normal team did take the test they would have the benefit of his experience.

Every day, the two cousins went out and trained in the Uchiha training fields. By the end of the two months of medical leave, Itachi had begun to look forward to spending his days with his cousin. It was a level of certainty in his life, something that was stable and enjoyable and made him feel that he was part of something. His cousin had become a friend, more than a friend, his closest friend.

The two decided to attend the spring festival together. It was the last day they both had off for training purposes. Tomorrow Itachi would return to the ANBU and Shisui would begin the journey to Lightning country for the Chuunin exam being held there in just a few weeks. Itachi would be twelve in a few days. Shisui would be thirteen in just another few months. The two cousins walked through the streets of Konoha. Everything in the village from light poles to store fronts was decorated and the cherry trees were in full blood spreading their pleasant sent throughout the air. Everything smelt of spring. Foods of every type were being sold from carts. Fans, and masks, and a million mementoes of the night were up for sale.

The two boys walked past the girls dressed up in fancy Kimonos with intricately tied sashes and their hair done up with trinkets. The men that the boys walked past were dressed in formal garb from their Haori coats to weapons displayed that had been handed down for generations. Everyone was dressed as if this was not a ninja village. Women looked like women and not Kunoichi that could kill you in a heart beat. Men looked like gentlemen and not shinobi who were not even phased at pools of blood. Everyone and everything in the village wrapped itself in an illusion of peace and spring and tranquility.

The two boys walked through the streets, perfect members of the Uchiha clan. They were both dressed in their clan's formal attire. Black Kimono and black Hakama with matching black Haori jackets emblazoned with the Uchiha fan. The white and red of their clan symbol a stark contrast to the pastel colors of spring which made up most of the crowd. They both had the Uchiha look. Even though Itachi was the younger of the two, he was still about two inches taller than the other. Where his cousin had the broader build of most of the clan, Itachi had inherited his mother's lighter build. They both had the black eyes and the dark hair. Itachi's hair a pure black and Shisui's just a shade away.

For the first time, girls were walking up to them dressed in pretty clothes and blushing and asking the boys to win them this or that or to walk them to a certain place. The smiles and laughter were a nice change from what both boys were used to. Gentleness and demureness instead of brashness and ruthlessness. Flowers instead of Kunai and fruit juices instead of blood. The Uchiha clan was often accused of being too serious, and the boys could not disagree with that observation on that night, not when confronted by such laughter and enjoyment. This was their last night of their near vacation, Itachi returning to ANBU in the morning and Shisui leaving for his Chuunin exam which still had a high mortality rate.

They ignored what was normal for their clan and spent the night talking to the pretty girls, and pretending to not notice blushes hidden poorly behind intricate paper fans. The two boys won little baubles at the games which were set up for the festival, competing with their skills of dexterity and accuracy at the girl's request. The boys also spent more of their wages than they had planned on by purchasing shiny trinkets and too sweet candies. Finally, as the night grew late, the festival was winding down and Itachi found himself and his cousin sitting on a small hill overlooking the last remnants of the party. Fireflies filled the sky with tiny points of flickering light as the boys relaxed on the grass of the hill.

Shisui was the first to break the comfortable silence between the two. "That was fun." He took a bite of a chocolate he had purchased at the festival.

Itachi nodded, licking at a piece of sugar candy, "The girls were funny."

"Funny?"

"With how they were hanging on us." Itachi was not sure why the girls at the festival had been doing that, just that it was enjoyable and different and helped get his mind off of things. It was different from when he had been around Sachiko. She had not acted like those girls, she had acted like a ninja and a teammate and someone who could be trusted.

"They're looking to bag a Uchiha as a boyfriend," Shisui said it as if his statement were a well known fact that Itachi should have already known.

"What?" Itachi sat up as he looked over at his cousin, surprised by what the boy had just said.

"Our clan holds a lot of prestige, those girls are just looking to marry into it. They were with us only because we are Uchiha. We have money and we have power; plus, we have the Sharingan. They want that. Simple greed and wanting to move up the social ladder." Shisui spoke of the young girls having such motivations as if it were to be expected. As if it was to be expected of everyone outside the clan. Itachi did not miss the fact that Shisui believed the Uchiha to be superior to the others.

Itachi looked up at the sky, the candy forgotten as he turned to looked at his cousin. "I wish I was not a Uchiha." The words were out of his mouth before he realized he had even said them. Two pairs of shocked black eyes looked at each other. Itachi not believing what he had said and Shisui not believing what he had heard.

Itachi stood up, taking a step away from his cousin before turning and running as fast as he could. He could not believe he had said that. If Shisui told his father, the man would be so angry. He did not want to think about what the man would do to him. Then the memories came crashing down. The full recollection of what had happened last time breaking through the last layers of the genjutsu. He remembered what happened that night after he left Kakashi's apartment – after he was taken from Kakashi's apartment.

He had been led from the apartment by His father and Uchiha Inabi. The two men had carried him from the warmth and safety of Kakashi's apartment before the silver haired ANBU could do anything about it. He had been taken back to the Uchiha compound, but not to his house. He had found himself in the council chambers where he had been tied into a chair. While it was widely known that the Sharingan was adept at seeing through Genjutsu, what was less known was that it could also be used in the casting of illusions.

As Itachi was strapped into the chair, three Uchiha, his father, Inabi and Tekka walked towards him. They had their Sharingan activated. Itachi activated his in defense against whatever they were planning. That was when the beating started. They beat him with wooden swords until he did as they said and dropped the Sharingan. It was then that he found three pairs of Sharingan eyes staring at him. Everything then became unclear. He saw things, illusions more powerful than he had ever seen before. He saw his mother being killed before him, he saw Sasuke being killed before him. He knew it was a threat. They knew what was precious to him … or they thought they did.

With what little grasp on reality that Itachi had, he pleaded for his mother's life. He would not let them know that it was Sasuke's death that truly affected him. He poured all that grief and rage into the pleas for his mother. His mother – a woman he would as soon see dead. She knew what had happened to him and did nothing to stop it. She was complacent in the whole sin marring the Uchiha clan. In Itachi's eyes, she deserved any pain she got -- she deserved death.

His brother Sasuke though, the boy was innocent. He had not yet performed the katon that would prove he was an adult. He was still untouched. The Uchiha curse had not contaminated him yet. Itachi remained resolute though the torture to save his brother, save him through any means he had.

Itachi was not sure how much time had passed when he realized where he was again. The recollection of what had happened that night was so strong it had forced him to sit in the roots of an old tree. He had not even realized he had wandered to his old hiding place, where he had felt safe amongst the roots of that tree.

He stayed there, safe in the tree roots until he felt a familiar presence approaching him. He activated the Sharingan to make sure his cousin was alone before stepping out of the tree's roots and announcing his presence. Shisui landed next to him, a look of worry marring his normally stoic face.

"Itachi, I've been looking for hours." The older boy reached out to grab Itachi's shoulder. "You had me worried, what the heck is wrong?"

Eyes narrowed, Itachi shrugged off the hand from his shoulder. "You know exactly what is wrong. You know, everyone knows." He did not even bother to hide the venom in his voice as he snarled at Shisui. How dare the boy act as if he did not know? Every Uchiha knew. Every Uchiha who wore that accursed fan on their back knew what the clan's secret was, knew about what was done. How Dare Shisui pretend he did not know?

Shisui looked surprised and confused as he looked at his younger cousin. His voice was soft when he finally did speak, and his eyes black without the Sharingan activated. In the face of Itachi's red eyes, keeping his black was a sign of trust towards the other boy. "I don't know what is wrong. Itachi, please tell me?"

Itachi blinked. Could it be possible that his cousin did not know? Maybe every Uchiha did not know? Itachi took a step back as his eyes faded from red to black. He looked at his cousin in confusion. "I … I can not tell you." Maybe the boy honestly did not know.

As soon as Itachi allowed himself to think that maybe Shisui did not know, everything got confusing. If Shisui did not know, maybe he was not evil. He could not be expected to stop something he did not know about. If Shisui did not know, then maybe the entire clan was not evil? Maybe, he could find people in powerful positions in the clan that could be convinced to arrest his father and the others? Maybe there was a way out of this that would keep Sasuke safe?

Itachi found himself being held by his cousin. He did not know what to do. He did not know what to think. He was led back to his house by his cousin, listening to softly spoken words of it is OK and that he would be there when Itachi was ready to talk. When they got back to the Uchiha compound, Shisui walked him to his bedroom and they changed into bedclothes and went to sleep. Itachi's sleep was fitful. The nightmares of who knew and who did not tormented him. Doubts that had his assumptions had been wrong plagued his sleep. Had he misread the body language clues his Sharingan had seen? He did not know what to do.

When morning came, Itachi dressed quickly and ate a quick breakfast. He was back on active duty and could not let those thoughts bother him now. He had a duty to his village to perform. He was not surprised to find out that he had been reassigned to a different mentor. He knew his father would do everything in his power to keep him from contacting Hatake Kakashi. Itachi's new mentor was a Uchiha, a second cousin of his father's or some such. He knew exactly where that man's loyalties were and would not trust him. The man might as well have had a sign on him stating he worked for Fugaku and not ANBU.

Over the next three months, Itachi was worked hard. It was almost enough to keep his mind off of the problems at home. He went on many missions, but now he knew his father had his mission schedule. Nights not spent on a mission were always spent at home. Sometimes Shisui was not on a mission and was able to stay with him. Those were the good nights. Staying up longer than they should have, talking about the parts of their missions they could. More and more often, the conversation was found turning towards girls. Whom they wanted to kiss, who wanted to kiss them, and who had waved at whom. It had an innocence and a normality to it that Itachi treasured.

On the nights that his cousin couldn't be there though … those nights reminded Itachi of why he needed to save Sasuke. His father would see him on those nights. Those nights were the reminder to Itachi that the hell he was living in was not over, but there was no way he was going to let Sasuke fall into that same pit. He thought of plan after plan. He thought of kidnapping Sasuke to keep him from the family. He thought of turning in his father. One by one, every plan he could think of was analyzed and discarded as impossible. He could not find anything that had a chance of saving the young boy.

Itachi was getting more and more frustrated. He was training as hard as he could to become as strong as possible and yet it was not enough. No matter how hard he tried, it was not enough. He could not defeat his entire clan, no one person could and every other plan had too many flaws in it, too many dangers. He had to think of something.

Itachi's only reprieve was the nights he was with Shisui and he was able to be a normal twelve-year-old boy. One night, a few hours before a clan meeting, they were both required to be at, they were walking along the banks of the Nakano river. As they walked in the dimming light, Itachi was being particularly trouble by his inability to think of a way to save Sasuke. Shisui and Itachi walked down to the River. As they strolled along its banks, Itachi was kicking rocks in. Shisui knew that something was definitely bothering Itachi that night, and it was his best chance to find out what it was.

Walking next to his younger cousin and being careful to not press for information too much, Shisui asked, "What's bothering you tonight?"

Shisui and Itachi were both Chuunin. They were both Uchiha and they were both so close in age that it was expected they spend a lot of time together. In fact, they had grown to be friends. Itachi took a gamble that night. Normally the boy never took chances and never did anything if he was not sure what the chances of success were, but he took a chance on his cousin. His answer was simple. "My father."

"Fugaku?" Shisui turned to his cousin, surprised at both the answer and its bluntness.

Itachi nodded. "He … does things." He could not believe he was telling his cousin this. Every instinct in his body was telling him to shut up and shut up now.

Shisui stopped, every muscle in his body radiating concern as he carefully watched his younger cousin. "What … things?"

It was then that Itachi explained everything. He found the words rolling out of his mouth, speaking faster than the normally quiet boy spoke. He told his cousin of what happened after he showed his father the Katon. He told him the price that he paid to wear that fan on his back. He told him how his father came to his room at night. He spoke of the fear and disgust and the horror of what was going on. Midnight runs though the forest were explained. Throwing himself into the freezing cold winter in the middle of winter justified by the way his father touched him. He told his cousin that he wished his father was dead, that he did not love the clan and that he wished he had been born to some other family. He wished he was normal.

For a moment, Itachi's Sharingan flickered to life, the powerful surge of chakra brought on by the flood of emotions. That brief instant of Sharingan was all it took for Itachi to see the truth. Shisui was not surprised. He was not shocked or appalled. He was putting on a very good front, but it was a lie. Shisui knew everything that Itachi was telling him already, the boy knew. The boy knew all the secrets of the clan and what was done.

In the brief instant, Itachi's Sharingan noticed the deceit in Shisui. He had his cousin pinned to the ground. "You knew. You already knew!" The betrayal was raw in his voice as he tried to believe that his cousin who had become his friend could have been hiding that.

Shisui glared back up at Itachi, "You should be happy. You have a little brother who will soon be yours to break in."

Itachi's eyes flared red. "No one will ever touch my brother." His words were cold and devoid of passion. They were not a threat, they were a promise. Shisui was like the others. No Uchiha could be trusted. They were all the enemy. He had tried to trust his cousin, and he had been betrayed to the core.

Before Shisui could react, Itachi had him by the throat and they were both in the water. Sharingan clarity did not even begin to explain how Itachi was seeing the word at that moment. As he held Shisui down, the other boy's eyes turned red. The water washed over them, both of them below the water. Red eyes locked and fear spread over Shisui's face as Itachi's world became clearer. He saw the panic and fear and abject terror in those eyes, but it wasn't enough. Shisui should have to endure what he had gone through.

Without knowing what he was doing, Itachi started to craft an illusion. The sky went red as the black moonlight drifted through the blood red water. Pale Uchiha skin became black and pitch black clothes became white. It was as if the world was turning itself inside out, black becoming white and white becoming black and the world filling with the red of blood, the red of the Sharingan.

They were both in Itachi's room that night, that first night. The night when young Itachi had been so proud that he had mastered the Goukakyuu and illuminated the small lake with fire. The night of the party where he had worn the Haori coat with the Uchiha crest, it was the night when he had been welcomed into the Uchiha clan as a full member once again.

Over and over he replayed the betrayal that night. He made Shisui live through it, seeing the night over and over. Feeling what it felt like to have pride and happiness turn into betrayal and despair. He made Shisui live it over and over. They were lost in the illusion that Itachi wove. At the last second, Itachi stood up. Letting go of Shisui, his cousin's body drifted down, swallowed by the waters of the river. He backed away. He had killed another Uchiha.

Red eyes frantically searched for any witnesses. There were none. With the clarity presented by his eyes, there was no chance he missed anyone. This made his former vision seem like he had been walking in a haze. In this new red tinted word, everything could be seen. Insects wings beating and grass being blown by the wind. He saw it all. He hurried to the bank, careful not to leave any traces as he grabbed Shisui's pack. He scrawled out a suicide note in his cousin's writing. Somehow, he kept calm while writing a note about how Shisui could never live up to the ideals of the clan and he could not take it any more. He left the note there with his cousin's things before he ran off to try to think.

Once again, Itachi found himself between the roots of his favorite tree. His clothes were drying on a tree branch as he sat there thinking. Something was not right. The world was still covered with a haze and he was feeling exhausted. He pulled out a Kunai and looked down at it. Instead of his three toma Sharingan looking back at him, his eyes were a swirl of black and red. Itachi's eyes widened as he stared into the reflection of his eyes. Something was seriously wrong. He concentrated on releasing the Sharingan. He watched as the swirls in his eyes faded back to the three toma. Whatever had caused the change in Itachi's eyes, the new form of Sharingan took a lot more chakra. Three toma and the world was back to normal. He faded his eyes back to black before gathering up his clothes. He went to the ANBU headquarters and got a mission. He needed a reason not to be at the meeting tonight. In his state of chakra depletion, he knew a room full of Uchiha was the last place he should be.

Yes, his father would be mad that he missed the meeting; however, it would not be the first time. If he were up to it, he would have attended the meeting since not being there would draw suspicion to him.

That night while the Uchiha clan met, Itachi stood guard outside the third Hokage's quarters. The traditional ANBU guard stationed outside of the man's room was more symbolic than necessity, a show that the village was guarding the man who guarded them. The chances of an enemy getting to the man's bedchamber were miniscule, and then any attacker would still have to face the Hokage, one of the strongest Ninja in the village. This was the safest mission for him to take in his exhausted and distracted state. It was also one most everyone in ANBU hated as well. It was a night of standing and knowing nothing would ever happen.

As he stood there guarding the Hokage's room, he thought about the events that had unfolded that night. It was as if he was replaying events that had happened to someone else. Everything had been too clear; his vision had been so strange when he killed Shisui. He did not feel guilty or remorseful for killing his cousin. However, Itachi had never been more grateful for that anonymous porcelain mask to hide behind. He had killed his cousin; he had killed the one person who had become his closest friend. He could not allow another weakness like that. He could not allow anyone to get so close to him again. How Itachi felt about his brother had almost been revealed to his father. If Fugaku knew that Itachi wanted to save his little brother from the fate in store for all Uchiha, Sasuke would be doomed.

He had to stay even more distant from the boy. If anyone knew about how he felt towards Sasuke, something horrible would happen to his little brother. He could not let anything endanger Sasuke, so he would stay even more distant. He knew the little boy wanted his big brother to spend time with him and practice with the kunai and just acknowledge him, but there was too much risk. He had to hurt his brother; he had to seem more distant in order to save the little boy. By the time that Itachi's duties guarding the Hokage had ended, he knew what he had to do. He had to learn how to use this new ability he had. He had to appear to distance himself from his brother. He also needed make his father think he was nothing but loyal to the clan. Those three things would need to be done if he had any hope of saving Sasuke.


	17. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

I don't have a Beta right now. If this changes, this note will change

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 16 -_

_Warning contains spoilers to ep 129_

When Itachi got home from guard duty, he found his little brother alone in the house, a report card gripped in his hand. His reason for everything he did was sitting on the back porch. He walked to the boy and sat down next to him, glancing over at his little brother, he asked, "Are you disgusted with me?" He was not sure what the answer would be, but he had pushed the boy away so much. He tried to hide his worry that he had hurt the boy too deeply by saying it was natural for ninja to be hated. In his heart, he only thought it was natural for Uchiha to be hated.

The child's answer was one of admiration though. It hurt to know that the child was still so trusting after all that Itachi had done -- pushing him away, ignoring him, that it was all forgiven so easily. He tried to deliver a warning, "If you have power, you will become isolated and eventually get arrogant." Oh, how well that described his clan. He went on to tell his brother how they were unique their relationship, if only Itachi could tell him how. The best he could to in order to repair the damage his pushing the boy away had caused was to promise, "I'll always be with you, as the wall you should over come." He was always there, and would protect the boy. Someday however, Sasuke had to prove he was strong enough to not need protecting. Some day, Itachi would no longer be able to protect him. "Even if you were to hate me, that is what an older brother is for." That at least is what an older brother should be for, to save his little brother from the same fate.

A knock at the door interrupted their talk. The voice calling out for him caused him to walk to the front door of their house. Gesturing for Sasuke to stay where he was, Itachi walked forward to meet the members of the Konoha police force. It was then that they informed him of Shisui's suicide. For a moment, he thought they honestly were informing him solely so he could have ANBU look into the matter, but then Uchiha Inabi paused to say over his shoulder, "I hope we find some clues. We also have a different route to ANBU. If you were to try and destroy the investigation request, we will find out right away."

Itachi's eyes narrowed. As if he would be foolish enough to not know how ANBU was infected with Uchiha. He stepped forward, "Why don't you say that more directly?" As three pairs of Sharingan turned to look at him, he asked, "Are you suspecting me?" He knew they were, but did they have enough information to actually say that they were.

Inabi's mouth turned to a snarl, "That's right you piece of shit."

Uchiha Yashiro nodded, "Listen up, Itachi! Just try and betray the clan! You won't get by so easily!"

In less than five seconds, all three Uchiha policemen were on the ground. Itachi straightened up as he looked at them, "I've told you before. You should not make judgments about people based just on appearance. You make your own decisions about me and make light of me. Clan? Clan?" Those pompous bastards thought their great Uchiha clan of rot and decay was the most important thing. He did not even realize Sasuke was watching him; the rage he had kept confined in his body was starting to break through. "You have misjudged how great your potential is and do not know how deep mine is, and now, you are on your hands and knees in the dirt."

Uchiha Yashiro was the first to recover, "Shisui had been watching you recently." The old man said it like it was some revelation. We couldn't ignore your recent behavior. What are you thinking?"

"Attachment to the organization, Attachment to the clan, Why attach at all?" The rage at the betrayal his clan had done to him was building as he glared at the three men in the dirt before him. "That is merely the detestable action of restricting yourself and limiting your own potential." He would not let his clan force him into walking the same path they had chosen. No matter what it took, he was going to break free of that and save Sasuke. "Now I see it. People fear and hate those they do not understand. How foolish." They could not understand him, because he was not like them. He would never do what they had done.

Suddenly he was brought back to the here and now by the voice he feared and hated. Fugaku, in full jônin uniform, had arrived, "Stop Itachi. What in the world is going on?" The rage smoldered in his eyes. "Itachi, You've been acting strangely these days." The man had the nerve to act as if he didn't know why Itachi was acting strange, like he didn't know what he had done to his own son.

The urge to answer this man and let him know how evil he was welled up in Itachi, "Nothing is strange. I am just doing what I need to do. That's all." Of course, his father did not understand that he was doing it to protect his brother. How could a man like that understand?

"Then why didn't you come to the meeting last night." Fugaku looked serious. He wanted answers and wanted them now.

"To get closer to the top." The unspoken words of getting closer to you so I can kill you and save my little brother were unsaid. The kunai was in his hands in an instant. He stopped himself from throwing it at his father, only but only by throwing it at a perfect substitute -- the Uchiha fan painted on the wall. The rage was burning in him. "I have given up all hope in this worthless clan." He was talking for once before thinking. "Because people attach themselves to their clan, a thing so petty, they lose sight of the things that are truly impotent. A real change cannot occur under those restraints and controls." He was saying things he should not, but he was so full of rage.

His father glared at him, "Such arrogance!"

Yashiro stood, "If you're going to say more worthless nonsense, we'll put you in prison." It was four Uchiha to just him, they believed they had the advantage, and perhaps they did.

"So what's it going to be?" Inabi growled at him. "We will not threaten you anymore. Captain, give us the order to restrain him!" He was seething with rage at the words Itachi had just said about the clan.

It was then that Sasuke broke Itachi's anger and reminded him of why he was doing this, why he was doing everything. As he heard the voice of his brother cry out, "Brother! Stop!" Itachi was jerked back to the fact he was not yet ready to save his vulnerable brother. He bowed his head, acknowledging the defeat for now. He fell to his knees, showing respect the only way he could in the hopes it would allow him to remain free so he could still save his bother.

"I didn't kill Shisui." No, he did not blame himself. The taint of the clan was what truly killed his cousin. "But I apologize for all that I have said improperly. I am very sorry." The apology was heartfelt. His moment of passion had risked his brother's safety.

Somehow, Itachi convinced them that he was not lying and that he did not have anything to do with Shisui's death; or at least he was able to convince them that they did not have enough evidence to consider doing anything to arrest him. Itachi watched the men leave, his eyes flicking back to the strange state where everything was crystal clear in its blood stained haze. He saw them leave, knowing they did not believe he was innocent. Their body language was as clear as if they were telling him their thoughts. He had never seen things this clearly before.

Then he heard a noise from the house. He looked over there and standing in the midst of the red haze, he saw his little brother. The boy was clinging to the doorway, peering out at the world. Itachi saw the boy in his new clearer vision. He saw how the boy did not know what to believe. He saw the play of muscles as the boy fought between running away, running to his brother, or staying where he was clinging to the door frame. Itachi saw his brother's pitch black eyes lock onto his own and the boy's eyes widen. He saw the faster pulse from the arteries in the boy's neck. He saw the boy's breathing increase. He saw the thin sheen of sweat appear.

To Itachi it felt as if the boy was screaming, the subtle signs of fear were so obvious to him. The boy was scared of him, for the first time his little brother was scared of him. Then it occurred to him, it must be the eyes -- the strange eyes that Itachi had only seen in the reflection of his kunai. He concentrated and made the eyes change back to black. He did not want his little brother to fear him, he didn't want to hurt the boy. As his eyes returned to black, he saw some of Sasuke's fear leave him, but the boy was still full of apprehension. The boy was young. Even if he said something about Itachi's eyes, people would most likely think the child was mistaken.

Everyone knew that Sasuke had not inherited the Sharingan as strongly as Itachi had. The younger brother's eyes had taken time to change from newborn blue to black, his eyes hadn't been born black like Itachi's. The younger brother had never shown the same ability with weapons as Itachi had either, instead the boy's aim always seemed to be needing work. As for Jutsu, although the boy had started at the academy, and was the most talented in his class, he was with students his own age. The younger boy showed no particular talent and had not demonstrated the ability to use even simple fire jutsu. Although most of the clan was disappointed in how Sasuke was progressing, Itachi was grateful. The longer it took his little brother to learn the giant fire ball jutsu, the more time Itachi had to think of a way to save the boy. He had to save the boy, somehow.

Itachi left his brother there in the house. He needed to think. Time was running out for Itachi to be able to save his little brother from the Uchiha fate. No one was going to touch his brother like they had touched him. Itachi had made that promise back when his little brother was born, and he intended to keep that promise. Nothing was going to get him to back down now, whatever it took, Sasuke would be saved.

Itachi ran across the rooftops. He was exhausted. He needed to think of something, some place that was safe, that no one would look for him there. He needed to get some sleep. The new level of Sharingan was draining his chakra too fast, if he was attacked, he was vulnerable. Hatake Kakashi would let him crash at his place, but after last time, that was too dangerous. Fugaku would look for him there. That would be the first place they would look. ANBU headquarters would be dangerous as well. Too many Uchiha were in ANBU, they would know if he was hiding there. He needed somewhere safe, where no one would ever look for him.

He had to think like he wasn't a Uchiha. His mind was racing, how to think like he was not Uchiha. Itachi had been a Uchiha his entire life. Everyone he had been around except teammates were Uchiha. They did not associate often with outsiders because they were superior… that was it. Uchiha believed they were superior to the other clans. If he went outside the clan, outside of ANBU, that was his only chance to find a safe place where his father would not look.

He found himself at Sachiko's house. The house Sachiko used to live at. He knocked on the door, hoping her mother was home. He had not been here in a while, and he did not think his family knew he had ever come here. Then again, his family was Uchiha, they probably never even thought about someone from another clan, especially one as small as Sachiko's. As he stood on the porch, hearing someone approach the door, his mind drifted back to that girl. She really had taught him a lot, probably more than he had taught her. Yes he taught her weapons and fire jutsu, but she taught him how to not be a Uchiha. She taught him what it would take to save his brother. The way to outthink his clan was to think different than they expected.

He would be unlike any other Uchiha. He would search for help outside his clan. He would have a safe place today to recover, because he would do the unthinkable to a Uchiha – he would ask Sachiko's mother for help. She was from a clan so small it might as well not even be a clan. It was not a fancy house, but he knew that she would find a place for him to stay where he could be safe. He would put his trust in another human being. Sachiko had taught him to not only have faith in himself, but how to trust.

When the other woman answered the door, an honest smile spread across her face to see her daughter's old teammate. Yes, she still missed her daughter. A wound like that never healed. However, the young Uchiha was a connection to her daughter. He had been Sachiko's best friend. Who knows what would have happened had they both lived. Now the boy was twelve and nearly as tall as she was. She bowed to the boy, "Itachi-kun, please come in. It has been so long; let me get you some tea. Are you hungry?" She could not believe how the boy was growing. He was tall and thin and had made ANBU. The village knew he would soon be a jônin. He was growing up into a handsome young man.

Itachi nodded as he followed the woman into the house. This was how a mother was supposed to be, warm and caring, not how his own mother was with him. "Yes, please." He let her guide him to the kitchen table. He just smiled as she hurried around the kitchen without seeming to rush. Soon he had a small place of food in front of him and a cup of tea, both of which were not fancy, but were good. Itachi did not often smile, but being around Sachiko's mother was like being around Sachiko … back when she was alive.

"I need a favor." His voice sounded so young when he asked it, that it was a surprise to even him. He was not surprised that Sachiko's mother also seemed surprised.

"Itachi-kun, what do you need?" The concern was obvious in her; she didn't try to hide it. Why she treated him better than his own mother did, Itachi had no idea; however, she did.

"I … I can't go home right now." He looked up at her, surprised that he had stuttered. He was Uchiha Itachi, he did not stutter. No, right now he was just Itachi; he didn't have to be a Uchiha, not here. Here he was Itachi.

She nodded, "You can stay her as long as you need." Her worries for the boy had always been great. He was a sweet boy. He had been pushed so hard, and his life had been so cold and full of pain. "You look so tired."

In her house, Itachi did not force his façade into place. He did look exhausted; he looked like he was going to collapse at any moment. Now that the hot tea and the warm food were warming him from the inside, the fatigue his body was operating under was making itself known to Itachi. He simply nodded, knowing the woman would know what he meant.

She led him to Sachiko's old room. It still had their team picture on her dresser. Her items were still in the room. It was almost like having his old teammate back. He would never have Sachiko back though. Neither of them would ever have her back. Maybe that is what made their connection so strong, both him and Sachiko's mother had lost the precious girl that horrible day in Rock country. He looked from the picture with him and Nobu and Sachiko in the center. Yuuhi-sensei was in the back of the photo smiling over all of them.

She just nodded, "I know, I know. I miss her too. You get some sleep." Then she did something that no one had done in so many years. Sachiko's mother leaned down the few inches to kiss Itachi's forehead. It was as if he were her own child with the kindness she was showing. The warmth his own mother had never shown him.

He looked at her, unsure what to do. If her were acting like a Uchiha, he would brush off that display of affection and be above such things. He was not though … he was neither above such affection nor acting like an Uchiha. Itachi leaned into the woman to hug her, his "Thank you" muffled by her shoulder. When Itachi crawled into Sachiko's old bed, he was asleep in almost an instant. He felt safe there. No one would look for him somewhere so warm and caring. No Uchiha would seek out the warmth of Sachiko's mother. His last thought as he fell asleep was that perhaps the Uchiha would be in a lot better shape if they did seek out such things. A mother should protect and love her children. A father should as well. The travesty of parenthood found in the Uchiha clan was not right. He drifted into a deep dreamless sleep, his exhaustion combined with the warmth of this place was too much for him to resist.


	18. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

I don't have a Beta right now. If this changes, this note will change

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_Chapter 17 –_

(extra note: For some reason as of right now fanfiction's alert about the t chapter doesn't seem to have been sent, so make sure you didn't miss chapter 16)

The sun was setting when Itachi finally woke up. It took Itachi a few moments to become fully away, the last tendrils of sleep clinging to him as he sat up in the warm bed. As he smelt the air, he could make out the aroma of chicken and vegetables and some sort of sweets. He slipped out of the bed, pulling his outer shirt over the thinner shirt he had been sleeping in. He padded out of the room to see Sachiko's mother and father and little sister getting ready to eat dinner. He did not miss noticing there was an extra spot set for him. He was hardly in the room before Sachiko's mother led him over to the chair and dished food onto his plate.

Being around Sachiko's mother was one thing, he had gotten used to the woman the times he had seen her. However, being around his dead teammate's whole family was very odd. Although he knew that he was not covering how odd he felt very well, everyone else acted like having the Uchiha at the dinner table was the most natural thing.

Everything at dinner was wonderful. He was certain they did not eat like this every night, but that Sachiko's mother had gone all out with dinner since he was there. He wished she had not gone through all the work, anything would have been better than eating dinner at home. However, he appreciated it. The food was wonderful. Even with her going all out, the food was much less fancy than what he was used to. It tasted better than the food he had at home. It tasted like someone who cared about it had made it. Being there with Sachiko's family, he could understand how Sachiko had turned out as warm and caring as she had been. Her little sister was slightly younger than his own brother. He hoped that his brother would meet the little brown haired girl at some point. The thought of Sasuke having a friend like he had had Sachiko was a wonderful thought. Maybe there was hope for his little brother to have a normal life.

Dinner was over too soon. Itachi stood and helped clear the dishes though. He never did that at his own house. They had a servant that did that. However, clearing the dishes felt right here. He helped the little girl wipe off the table and soon everything was done and he had no excuse to be able to stay any longer.

Itachi walked over to Sachiko's mother. "Thank you. I … I appreciate you welcoming me here. It is no wonder that Sachiko was so warm to everyone with living here. I have to leave though."

She nodded. She knew the reprieve she had given the child was just temporary, but it was what she could do. "Itachi-kun, you always have a home here." Yes, by all logic the boy had no relation to them. Now that her daughter was dead, there was no reason for him to ever be at their house. However, the boy had been important to her daughter. People might think that being the Uchiha heir, the boy would have everything he would ever want. Sachiko's mother saw how he needed the time she spent with her. The boy did not get love and affection at home. She did not know how a clan could be like that, how the boy's mother could be like that. Under that stoic façade, Itachi was a sweet and caring child. If that was how all Uchiha were to their children, she was glad her own clan had nothing to do with them. What made her really worried about the boy though were the hints she had been given about his life. The times that he had confided in her left her so worried about the young boy. Yes, she was not a shinobi. Her husband had never gone past chuunin rank and now worked in the administrative offices. However, she worried about the young ANBU.

He hugged her before he left. Itachi did not normally hug anyone, but hugging Sachiko's mother just seemed right. He left the house and started walking back towards the Uchiha compound. He had an idea though. He was going to stop at their shrine. There were old books there detailing the history of the clan. If he had to figure out how to use his new ability on his own, he could. However, if he could find clues amongst the clan histories, then that would save him time. He knew time was running out. Soon Itachi would know how to use his chakra well enough to perform the fireball jutsu and become a fill member of the clan. He could not tell the boy not to. He did not want Sasuke to ever know what he saved him from.

As soon as he entered the gate, his father was there. The man fell into step with Itachi as the boy walked towards the Uchiha shrine. They walked without speaking for several blocks. Itachi did not miss the glances they received as they walked. By now, the entire clan knew of the death of Shisui and the suspicions that Itachi had something to do with it. He ignored them. He continued to walk to the shrine, not speaking until he walked into the old wooden building. A slight wave of the hand and all the candles flickered to life. He did not care if his father saw how much his jutsu abilities had grown. He was in ANBU; his father knew he was much stronger than he had been.

"The shrine?" Fugaku's words echoed in the near empty building.

"My cousin has killed himself. My closest friend is dead, am I not allowed? Or do you believe that I killed him?" Itachi kneeled in front of the shrine and closed his eyes. His voice did not reveal any emotion behind it. He was in the Uchiha compound, in the Uchiha shrine. He was acting exactly how a Uchiha should be. He was emotionless and a perfect example of a shinobi. "Am I not allowed to visit a shrine?"

Fugaku watched his eldest son kneeling and going through the motions of praying for the dead. Maybe all his son ever did was go through the motions. He frowned as he watched the boy kneel there. He was not sure how long he was going to watch his son; he did not even know why he was watching the boy. There was no real evidence connecting his to the death of Shisui. In fact, there was every indication that Shisui had really committed suicide. Yes, some of the people at the police force thought his son was involved. They had been seen together that night, but they had been enjoying themselves. They often were seen together though. The two boys never fought though, there did not seem to be a reason that Itachi would have killed Shisui. It just did not make sense.

Itachi and Shisui were so close. Shisui had often stayed in Itachi's room and the boys had practically been inseparable. For once when Itachi was spending so much time with Shisui, Fugaku had thought that Itachi was turning into a good Uchiha, someone he could entrust the future of the clan to. He could not see a reason that Itachi would have had for killing his cousin. If he had wanted to kill him, an accident during training would have been much easier and have created less suspicion. Granted, there were marks on Shisui's body, but the boys were Shinobi. They practiced in the training fields every day. Both boys had bruises. It was not proof that anything had happened.

Fugaku watched his son kneel at the alter in the shrine, as the boy prayed for his best friend. Straightening up, Fugaku nodded. He believed Itachi. Shisui had been his closest friend, and he had no reason to kill the boy. "Itachi. I'll let you have some solitude." He frowned when his son's only reaction was a nod. Perhaps the death of Shisui had affected him more than he had thought.

Fugaku walked out of the shrine, leaving his eldest son to grieve for the senseless lose of his friend. Suicide was not unknown. They were a shinobi village where children grew up under extreme stress. It happened. It happened to Uchiha as well. It would take some time for the police to lose their suspicion of Itachi, but Fugaku believed the boy was innocent. He walked back to the house, worried about his eldest son, but thinking the boy was finally showing what it took to become the leader of a clan like the Uchiha. Yes, the decision to entrust Itachi with Sasuke's indoctrination into the clan was a wise one, even though Shisui had questioned why Fugaku thought that was a good idea.

Itachi waited for his father to leave. He opened his eyes as he looked around the room. The scroll above the alter had always been taken to mean the Sharingan was the most powerful. It was when the Byakugan was opened that the Sharingan formed. It merely said, 'Open your eyes and the truth will be seen'. Of course, the Hyuuga clan did not agree that the Sharingan was superior, but they were never in this shrine. Itachi had a feeling that he knew the true meaning behind that scroll though.

Knowing that he was alone, he allowed his eyes to enter their new state as the toma in his eyes opened into their new form. As to room took its red tint, he looked around. Standing, he walked towards the crack in the wall that he had never seen. Fingers traced the pattern that was unseen even to the normal version of the Sharingan. No with this new version, he could see so much more. He pushed open the hidden door in the wall. A narrow corridor lead down into the space below the shrine. Carefully he walked though the stone corridor. Dust covered everything, but he could see clearly with his new level of Sharingan. Then he saw a small alter ahead of him. It was directly below the alter which he had been praying at earlier.

The kanji for truth was written over the alter and a single scroll lay on it. He carefully unrolled it. Without thinking about it, he lit the candles near the alter with a simple jutsu. Mangekyou, that was the name of this new form. The scroll was written by Uchiha Madara, the only other person to have activated this level of Sharingan. Itachi read through the scroll where Madara's research into what the power could do were revealed. With this, he would be a master of Illusion and even the Sharingan would be incapable of breaking through it. With this, he had power over other Uchiha. With this, he truly was the most powerful Uchiha in generations.

He poured over every bit of information in the scroll, memorizing everything written on that parchment. This would take him time to learn to use, but once he mastered it, he could protect Sasuke. Itachi let a rare smile spread across his face; yes, he now had the key to defending his little brother. It would just take a little bit of time. He left the room, putting out the candles with a quick wave of the hand. The door was resealed so that no one without his eyes could see it. Yes, this was exactly what he needed. He hurried back to his house to get a good night's sleep. He was sure his father was going to eave him alone … so that he could grieve. The smile was gone from his face as he walked to his room, but he knew he had the ability now. He would save Sasuke.


	19. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

I don't have a Beta right now. If this changes, this note will change

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

(Author's note: As far as I know alerts are still broke, so please note I will post the final chapter and conclusion before Saturday)

_- Chapter 18 –_

The days went by, and winter faded to spring. Itachi had been going on ANBU missions frequently now -- mostly solo work. Uchiha often accepted solo work, especially any Uchiha that proved himself as competent as Itachi. His specialty was tracking down missing nin, both for Leaf and for other hidden villages. Such work paid very well, and the village needed money -- the repairs from the fox attack had been expensive.

Itachi used those missions as opportunities to experiment with the new abilities he had gained from his eyes. Using the directions he had found in the scroll, he had soon learned that what he used on his cousin that night he had gained the eyes was the Tsukuyomi Doujutsu. It was a powerful Genjutsu attack which unlike other illusions, also distorted time. If could seem like days had passed when in fact only seconds had elapsed in the real world.

The Mangekyou quickly became Itachi's preferred attack. He grew more and more proficient at it. The fact he would capture enemy missing nin and experiment on them repeatedly with the Mangekyou before killing them aided in his mastery. As Itachi's skill grew so did his reputation as one of the best ANBU in the force. He received harder and harder assignments and he spent less and less time at the Uchiha compound. With the entire village talking about how the Uchiha genius was going to become a Jônin for sure, his father was pleased with him.

The Shisui matter was dropped. No one had the evidence to link him to his cousin's death. There was no reason to believe that he would have killed someone he was so close to. Eventually, Itachi found himself sitting in at more and more clan meetings when his busy ANBU schedule allowed and not getting in trouble with his father for when he could not make it. Sasuke still wanted him to help him train, but Itachi stuck to his plan. He avoided his brother so that no one would think the two were close. The only part of that plan that pained Itachi was that the boy believed it too. It could not be helped though. He was hurting Sasuke for the boy's own good. Better for him to think his older brother did not like him than for him to fall into the same abuse that was the fate of all Uchiha.

It was late spring when Itachi was assigned to an S rank mission with a partner. This was the first time he had been sent out into the field with Hatake Kakashi since they had been assigned together as mentor and student. Now, they were being sent out into the field as equals. Their mission -- to find a member of the Akatsuki known as Kisame. Evidently, the man was a Mist Missing nin and considered extremely dangerous. Intelligence believed he was in fire country though, and Konohagakure could not ignore that.

Itachi still held a grudge against the Akatsuki for what they had done to his first Genin team. He was looking forward to getting some revenge. The fact this was in service to his village was just an added bonus. The two ANBU raced across fire country, their passage through the thick trees soundless. They were as if composed of nothing more corporeal than shadow as they ran as fast as they could. The following day they reached the small village on the border of Fire and Wind that was supposed to be the base for Kisame.

They scouted out the village in the dead of night. This far away from Konoha, things were dangerous even in Fire country. The trail of threats and corruption traced back to a cabin outside of the village. Even in the dead of night, there was still activity there. Kakashi and Itachi were two of the best that ANBU had to offer. The barely skilled outer guards were killed without letting anyone know the two ANBU were there.

Two men were standing guard at the cabin itself. To dispatch those two took a few more minutes. It had to be done carefully so no one knew. They were both strangled, there was too much chance of someone inside the cabin having a hypersensitive nose and being able to smell blood from any other method.

Everything was as expected. Kisame was in the cabin with six others. While the six with Kisame were obviously skilled shinobi, they were not ANBU level. There was no way now to better the odds, the only thing that Kakashi and Itachi could do was to take advantage of the element of surprise and attack before anyone knew anything was suspicious.

Entering through opposite ends of the cabin, the two burst through the windows, shattering glass spraying over their targets. Kakashi, as the most experienced of the pair, matched up against Kisame, while Itachi started to improve their odds. The first of the six fell before the Uchiha's feet hit the floor of the cabin, a single kunai through the man's eye and into his brain.

As Kakashi and Kisame circled each other, the silver haired ANBU kept out of reach of the chakra-draining blade that Kisame was known though out all five great shinobi countries for. Itachi delivered a lethal strike to another man's throat; he had to get through these six and quickly. Kakashi was going to need his help with Kisame.

Itachi could not keep as focused on Kakashi as he wanted to; he needed to dispatch the last four so that he could help take out Kisame. They knew going into this that neither of them were strong enough to do it on their own. The door was thrown open; the chakra signature coming off the woman who stormed into the room with kunai drawn proved that their intelligence was wrong. She was at least at their level, if not Kisame's. The best the two ANBU could hope for was to take one of these threats to fire country out before they were taken out themselves, and with the odds how they were now stacked, it was unlikely either ANBU would ever see their home village again.

Itachi's mind instantly turned to Sasuke. If he died here, he would be unable to save his brother. If Itachi died, his brother would take his place, as future head of the clan as well as in his father's … no. That was not going to happen. Eyes changes as the Mangekyou activated. The four remaining from the initial six found themselves dead before Itachi's next breath. Kunai blows dispatched all of them. The room smelt of death and blood, which was fitting since all Itachi could see was the stain of blood, the red stain of the Mangekyou.

He circled the woman who entered the room. Her pure green eyes focused on his red eyes. Itachi could feel the genjutsu wrapping around him, but with the Mangekyou, even an illusion at this level did not affect him. He attacked, his blades out, not noticing whatever illusions she was trying to entwine him in. They traded blows, but with his eyes in their present state, he saw her moves as if they were in slow motion. He felt his eyes draining his chakra. He had never been able to hold it for long, only a few minutes at a time. This battle was going to be pushing his limits. Every attack he threw at her, she dodged or blocked, but he knew he had the upper hand. She relied on her illusion too much, but he relied on his eyes too much.

He felt the fatigue from the constant drain of the Mangekyou, but there was nothing that could be done. He had to kill this woman if he had any chance of returning home to save Itachi. Then he saw his opening. His kunai plunged into the woman's chest as she sunk her blade into Itachi's shoulder. They both fell to the cabin floor -- blood everywhere. He had almost no chakra left, his eyes having drained him. He fell onto her dead body, his breathing the only thing he could hear. The woman was warm and their blood was warm. His eyes drifted back to black, no longer having enough chakra to even maintain the normal version of the Sharingan. No, he was exhausted. He would not be able to get out of here without help, and he was no help to Kakashi. Itachi lay on the body of the woman he had killed, certain that he was going to die. Everything he had tried to do for Sasuke was going to amount to nothing, because he was going to die here in this cabin when the people who should be dying were his clan.

Everything became hazy as he watched the fight between Kakashi and Kisame. It was too fast for his normal eyes to really follow. For such a large man the blue-skinned missing nin from Mist was amazingly agile. Itachi knew that Kakashi was going to loose. The mist missing nin was too good for either of them, and the man's time in Akatsuki had only honed his killer abilities. Sasuke was going to be corrupted. His innocent little brother was going to meet the same fate as every Uchiha.

Itachi wasn't even sure how he managed to move or where he found the chakra reserves to do one last attack, but suddenly the room was tinted in red again and Kisame's eyes were looking into his. The moon went black, the red tint covered everything. The black of their uniforms became white while the white armor became pitch black. It was a weak version of the illusion he could cast, lasting only for a few hours of subjective time instead of a few days. It was enough though for Kisame to fall backwards away from the two ANBU.

The last thing Itachi saw before he fell into the blackness of Chakra depletion induced unconsciousness was Kakashi grabbing him. They were too wounded and too exhausted to be able to take out Kisame. Escaping with their lives was the only option at that point. Kakashi had dealt several blows to Kisame, but the man had grazed him more than once with that Chakra draining blade. He did not know what Itachi had done, but he took the opportunity to flee with both of their lives.

Their intelligence had not told them that Akatsuki traveled in pairs. That would be a mistake that Konoha would never make again. They would always assume the organization sent out two top agents. The lesson had almost been very expensive though, to loose two top agents would have been a blow to the village. Kakashi sent off a messenger bird from a summoning scroll to Konoha to get backup sent. He had managed to get several miles from that cabin and hide their tracks very well. He did not think Kisame would be coming after them, but it was too dangerous to risk a fire, not until reinforcements got there.

Kakashi was too exhausted to travel any farther that night and it would be at least half a day for back up. He found a sheltered place in the roots of a tree and pulled Itachi closer to him as he checked the bandage on the younger shinobi's shoulder. The blade had been poisoned, and Kakashi could only hope he had gotten the correct antidote into Itachi soon enough. The wound was bruised and purple. It would not close, so it just kept bleeding, not matter how much pressure Kakashi put to the shoulder to try to get the bleeding to stop. He hoped the reinforcements would have a medic nin with them. Itachi needed a hospital, but Kakashi was too exhausted to travel another step, let alone to make it to the hospital.

ANBU traveled light. They did not have half the survival gear that a typical shinobi would have on a mission. Kakashi pulled out the ultra thin thermal blanket from his hip pack, as well as the one from Itachi's. Using those, he tried to find a position where they would stay reasonably warm. Thankfully, it was summer, almost the boy's birthday in fact. Kakashi was only a few years older than Itachi. They stayed under that tree, resting while Kakashi tended to both of their injuries.

As day broke, Itachi was burning up with a fever and Kakashi was running out of ideas. What medicine he had in the first aid kit was being given to the boy, and Kakashi's own wounds were forgotten with how serious the shoulder wound on Itachi was. The Uchiha was delirious from the fever. He kept muttering names as he fitfully slept against Kakashi, not only the names of his father and brother, but those of his former teammates Nobu and Sachiko. Mostly Itachi murmured apologies to Sachiko. Kakashi had known that Itachi blamed himself for her death, but he had not realized to what extent. He had read the reports of what had happened in Rock country at those fateful chuunin exams. He did not see why the boy blamed himself soo much.

Earth country was still making reparations for the betrayal at the chuunin exams and even the three shinobi nations that had not been involved showed a lack of trust towards rock ninja after that event. There was no way that Itachi could have foreseen what happened and even if he had seen it, the boy would have been powerless to stop it.

As the sun rose, Kakashi continued to treat Itachi's injuries. It should only be a few hours for assistance to get here. Not for the first time in his life, Kakashi wished he had learned medical jutsu. He had copied many different attacks and defenses with his Sharingan eye, but he had never learned medical jutsu. To think that now, when he was finally in a position to repay Obito for a portion of his kindness, he might fail because he had not had the sense to learn medical jutsu with Obito's gift – it was a very sobering thought.

He did as much as he could, keeping the boy warm as apologies to Sachiko fell from lips pale from the poison coursing through the Uchiha's body. As the sun started to set, Itachi's breathing got harsher. Kakashi was almost certain the boy would not last the night. If help was not on its way, the boy was dead.

An hour after the sun set, four white armored shadows landed at the base of the tree. Kakashi had sensed them coming, and had recognized the squad as being from Konoha. Luck was with the Uchiha boy, and one of the squad was a medical nin. Although Tsunade's recommendation that all squads contain a medic nin had not been followed, nearly all squads sent out when something went wrong did contain one. This was not the first time when that decision had saved a life.

Now that they had sufficient numbers, a fire was lit to keep warm and the medical nin went to work on the young Uchiha while another member of the rescue squad tended to Kakashi. This time, instead of ignoring what the medic nin was doing to his teammate, Kakashi watched with the Sharingan exposed. He had almost broken his promise to Obito because he had not yet memorized medical jutsu. He was taking this opportunity to correct that.

Soon they were whisked back to Konoha. Itachi remained unconscious for the entire trip; however, he also remained alive. Kakashi was treated and released, besides the chakra depletion from Kisame's sword, none of his wounds were serious. Itachi, however, would remain in the hospital for a few days at least. The mission was considered a success. Yes, Kisame had escaped, but so had the two ANBU. The unexpected part was that they had killed the woman who had been traveling with him. From Kakashi's description, they were able to determine who she was. She was a missing Nin from Lightning and extremely high level. When Kakashi had been asked to explain how they had killed her, he was forced to admit he did not know. It explained as well as he was able the change that had happened to Itachi, but he had been too focused on fighting Kisame to be able to truly study the new technique that the Uchiha had seemed to unleash.

When Itachi regained consciousness, he was asked about how he had taken out the woman. They wanted to know how he had taken out so many opponents. He left out the Mangekyou when he explained things. However, his story of his concern for his team mate and former mentor and his desire to prove himself to his clan overriding the restrictions his body wanted to place on himself seemed to satisfy the men questioning him. He was rewarded for his actions that day. For his bravery in the face of overwhelming odds, he was made not just an ANBU member, but a captain as well. He would be given his own squad to command, one of the youngest at only the age of thirteen to ever have that honor. It was worth spending his birthday in the hospital. Then again, Itachi liked the hospital. His father left him alone when he was in the hospital.


	20. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

I don't have a Beta right now. If this changes, this note will change

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Chapter 19 -_

It was only a few days before Itachi was discharged from the hospital. Without missing hardly any time, Itachi took assignments for more missions and quickly started to get his team into shape. His family was proud of him. When he snuck through the streets to slip unnoticed into his room, he heard the other members of the clan speaking of how Itachi embodied what the Uchiha clan represented. He heard his aunt and uncle telling young Sasuke about when Itachi graduated and at what age he activated his Sharingan. As Sasuke ran off to the Academy that day, Itachi became worried. He recognized the look that glinted in Sasuke's eyes as the boy ran to the academy. It was the same look that Itachi often wore at that age. Determination and a Uchiha's natural abilities was often a very dangerous combination.

Itachi knew he was running out of time. He had to keep going on ANBU missions though in order to not attract attention. He was careful with his new abilities; it had almost been a major setback when he ha used the Mangekyou in front of Kakashi. If the other man had not been distracted by battling Kisame, then he would have clearly seen what Itachi was doing in order to defeat his opponents. Itachi was not sure what the rest of his clan new about the Mangekyou; but if they knew how it was obtained, he would be in serious trouble.

Even in a ninja village that trafficked in death, murder was still a serious crime. The only way to obtain the Mangekyou was to kill your best friend. To be found as having possession of the Mangekyou was as good as admitting that he had killed Shisui. He could not let them know that he had that ability; he had to remain secret from everyone. The only person who had seen his eyes like that had been Sasuke, and the boy had not spoken a word of that day to anyone.

Sasuke did not know how much his brother watched him. The boy did not know that Itachi followed him out to the training fields to watch him practice, or that Itachi followed his little brother into the woods to see him throw Kunai. Most importantly, Sasuke did not know that Itachi followed him that day when the boy walked down to the lake and gathered up his chakra and unleashed the Giant Fireball jutsu. Sasuke never saw the look of fear in his brother's eyes that day.

As fire lit the lake, flames dancing in the reflection of the waves, Itachi fell to his knees. Hew knew this day had been coming. In fact, he had received more time that he should have expected. With the Uchiha genius as an older brother it was no wonder that Sasuke was driven to excel, to show that he was worthy of the families praise. How much of that drive was a desire to gain attention from his big brother was unclear.

Itachi was still kneeling behind some trees when Sasuke brought their father down to the lake. The older brother's mind was racing, how could he protect his little brother? The options were running out and time was running out. To run away with the child would brand them both as missing-nin. With a clan full of Uchiha chasing them, they wouldn't last long. Itachi had learned about how hard it was for a missing nin to truly remain free. Too many forces hunted missing-nin, and even he would have a hard time avoiding capture. With a young child, it would be impossible.

As the fire lit the lake for a second time, Itachi came to the only conclusion possible. The only place Sasuke would be safe was in Konoha. The only way that Konoha would be safe is if all the Uchiha that would hurt the boy were dead. Anything less than death could not be trusted. He would have to kill all the Uchiha that had been corrupted. All the Uchiha that had been accepted as full clan members had to die. Itachi watched his father place a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. His eyes flashed to red as he saw the man express how Sasuke was truly a son of his.

The look of joy on his brother's face felt like someone was twisting a kunai into Itachi's chest. The boy looked so much like Itachi must have looked when he mastered that jutsu. The thought of being accepted into the family. The thought of making your family proud. He could still remember the joy that had coursed through his body the day that he had mastered that same jutsu, the traditional jutsu of the Uchiha clan. The day he had believed that he had earned the respect of his family and clan.

Itachi also remembered the felling that night of abject betrayal. Sasuke was not going to feel that. He would make sure of it. He would trade in his life if that were what it took to keep that boy safe. He broke into the admissions building to check mission deployment of all active Uchiha shinobi, luckily all the Uchiha as active shinobi were assigned within the walls. He walked into the house that night, knowing he just had to keep Sasuke safe for one more night.

As soon as Fugaku got home, Itachi was asking him questions. They retired to Itachi's room to talk over clan matters. He knew his father would not pass up a rare chance to talk to Itachi about the important responsibilities he would inherit. He would sacrifice his body tonight in order to keep Sasuke safe for another night, and then tomorrow he would sacrifice his life for his little brother.

Putting the idea into Sasuke's head that he should practice Shuriken late the next day was easy. A simple mention to the boy that his shuriken skills needed work and Itachi knew the boy would not be home until well after dark. It would not give him a lot of time, but it would give him some. It would have to be enough.

Itachi stayed in his room for most of the day, resting and making sure he had all of his chakra, because he was going to need it -- even with the element of surprise. In the afternoon, he carried his lunch up to one of the tallest buildings of the Uchiha compound. He sat on the roof, watching everyone go around their activities in the late afternoon sun. No one seemed to notice the thirteen-year-old Uchiha Itachi sitting on the roof and watching them. As the sun started to set, Itachi went into action. He had his father's Katana. It was an ancient blade that had been passed from head of the Uchiha to the next head for generations. It would be fitting that the blade would also be the end of the Uchiha clan.

When Itachi had been born, his father had said he would be fast like the wind. He would be so fast that no one would even see him and it would be as if the wind was killing and leaving a path of blood and bodies and not a person.

As the sun set, Itachi lived up to that destiny his father spoke over his innocent son all those years ago in that hospital room, as if the boy had been doomed to play the roll of murderer from his first breaths of summer air. He descended upon his clan, his blade glinting in the red light of the fading day. Starting with those that would not raise the alarm he worked his way in towards the center of the compound, worked his way into the center to where the house of the clan leader stood. Itachi worked his way in a swath of blood and bodies towards his house.

The first house was an old couple he barely knew. They had given him cookies once for Sasuke. Both wore the Uchiha fan on their backs. They fell to the floor in a pool of blood before they even knew the young Uchiha had entered their home.

The next house was a single old man. He had served in battles long ago as a shinobi for leaf. He was no longer a threat. Age had robbed him of skills to prevent his death, even if his Sharingan eyes allowed him to still see every perfectly executed stroke of the blade that ended his life.

The third house, and Itachi was falling into a deadly pattern. Two more adults fell at the dinner table while a daughter slightly older than Itachi crumbled to the floor in the doorway to the dining room. Before Itachi realized his actions, he sliced through her little brother as the boy tried to attack him with a kunai. Itachi paused; the boy should not have been killed. He was too young.

Before Itachi's mind could fully realize what he had done, he was at the next house. A young recently married family and the wife was expecting a child soon. Both of them wore the Uchiha fan. They fell before realizing what had happened. Their bodies collapsed onto one another.

Another house and another pile of death. It was several houses more before Itachi met a true challenge for his skills. He had not realized how far he had come, how much he had gained from his drive to better himself. Uchiha fell as if they were nothing but civilians. When he encountered his first fellow ANBU, all it took was a flash of the Mangekyou and the few seconds of distraction was enough to slit the man's throat. To think an ANBU would fall like that seemed unconceivable. Yes, Itachi had the element of surprise and Uchiha did not fear the Sharingan like the other clans did. No, they had grown complacent about it, trusting their own eyes to counter the effects of the Uchiha clan's ability,

Itachi killed them all. Young, old, men, women … it did not matter. Anyone who was an Uchiha fell that day. The blood was everywhere. As he reached his house, he thought he could smell the sickly sweet scent in the air. He could not have told you why he killed everyone, from the young to the old and not just those who were a threat to Sasuke. Then again, he did not truly know who was a threat and who was not. Tonight was his only shot. Tonight was his only chance to make the village safe for his little brother.

Blood dripped from the cold steel of his blade as he entered his family's house. Everyone else was dead. Every Uchiha in the village except for his own father and mother … and of course his precious brother. They all lay dead in a pool of their own blood. All had been killed by this blade. The blade that was to determine the future of the Uchiha clan was also the means to a rebirth of the clan.

He walked forward towards his parents. They intended to take him down. He saw the fear in their eyes as their son walked towards them, dripping in the blood of their clan. Everyone was dead outside of that room. Two more to kill and Sasuke would be safe. This would not be a quick kill thought. He knew how he was going to kill the two people that had hurt him the most. They were going to pay for what they did to him. They were going to pay for almost visiting the same fate upon Sasuke. They were going to know what it felt like. They would know how Itachi felt that night that his trust in the two people who should have protected him at all costs was betrayed, the night his soul was forever torn apart.

He let his eyes slip into the Mangekyou. His mother just looked confused at the changes her son's eyes made … his father knew though. From the fear in his eyes, Itachi knew that he knew the truth behind this knew power.

The man's voice was harsh, "You killed Shisui. I defended you, but you betrayed me. You betrayed your family. You betrayed your clan." Fugaku's eyes narrowed as he glared at his son. A kunai firmly gripped in his hands. They had his son, that child, out numbered. The boy had never stood up to him before now; there was no reason to think he was going to stand up to him now.

"You betrayed me father." Itachi did not react. He knew what his father would think. He knew what everyone would think. He would be branded the worst type of murderer when his activities today were discovered and exposed to the light of day. He did not care though. This was the only way to protect Sasuke.

"How did I betray you? I brought you up to take over the clan. I gave you opportunities others could only dream of." Fugaku stepped towards Itachi. He would take down his son before the boy was able to use the Mangekyou.

Itachi cast the illusion jutsu over his parents. As the moon shining through the window turned black and the blood mist covered his vision he showed them what they did. He showed them what he could never let happened to Sasuke. He made his parents relive that day, over and over.

He showed his parents the thrill he felt when he learned that fire jutsu. He made them feel how he was proud and excited and how incredible to made him feel for his father to acknowledge him like that. The wonder that filled his young mind as he was accepted by his father and clan then turned to pain as he made them relive every moment of that night. He made both of his parents relive every touch. Not only did he force them to feel every physical pain, he made them live through the mental pain. The betrayal, the fear, and the revulsion were replayed in agonizing detail for them.

As his parents descended into the darkness that Itachi had tried to throw himself into that night, he then made them feel the betrayal and shock brought about by his mother not only knowing what had happened but then cleaning him up to destroy the evidence. Over and over again, he made them relive that night. He had them fully snared in the illusion as time and again they were made to feel what he felt that night.

He stood over them as they shakily emerged from the illusion. He glared down at his parents. "It ends here." He stabbed his mother through the chest. They were both too stunned from the after effects of the illusion to do anything to stop him.

Itachi turned to his father, eyes narrowed and a burning hatred apparent in those eyes. "You will never do that to Sasuke." As he held his blade over his father, he looked down at the man, shivering with fear at his feet. "I swore to my brother that you would never do the same thing to him. I am the most powerful Uchiha. You must all die." The blade sunk into his father's chest. Blood pooled at Itachi's feet as he killed the last person who would hurt Sasuke.

No one was left who would hurt his little brother. The boy was now safe. Itachi was tired; the chakra it had taken to kill his entire clan had almost been more than he had. He let himself relax for a moment; his bloody task was over. The silence in the Uchiha compound was deafening to him. All the noises he had spent a lifetime listening to were gone. A shudder passed through his body at what he had done, but it had been the only way. To keep Sasuke safe was worth it. This marked the end of his life as a Konoha shinobi. He was a missing nin with a price on his head, or he would be once this was discovered. There was no turning back. There had been no turning back since the day his father had laid a hand on him though. Now perhaps Itachi had finally broken free from the fate that had forced him. His brother was free, and that was what mattered.

As Itachi kneeled next to the bodies of his dead parents, he heard the door open. Looking up he saw Sasuke. The boy was pale and breathing hard. Itachi had not expected the boy back yet. As he looked at Sasuke, the boy took a step towards him.

Itachi's brain was racing, what to do. He had not expected to be discovered like this by the child, he had wanted to spare Sasuke this. No, there was no way to spare the child this pain. The boy was the last Uchiha. His little brother would inherit everything the clan had done, he would be the one to reform the Uchiha clan. He would need to be strong. He would need to resent Itachi. If the village thought that Sasuke sympathized with his brother, he would not be able to take over the clan. The young boy needed to be seen as a victim in this.

Itachi stood up, his blade dripping with their parent's blood as he took a step towards his little brother. He saw the boy realize that Itachi was the one responsible for this slaughter. The boy turned to run, but Itachi had caught him with the Mangekyou. There would be no doubt in the young boy's head about what had happened that night.

Sasuke descended into the illusionary world the Mangekyou could generate. Itachi showed him the room with the scroll about the Mangekyou first. He showed the young boy how to get there as he relived walking through that door. He made sure the boy would be able to uncover those same scrolls and learn about the Mangekyou. Sasuke would need to gain the eyes for himself to be strong enough to build the clan from nothing. The first Uchiha had used the eyes to gain the power that the clan had enjoyed. As the last Uchiha and rebuilder of the clan, Sasuke would need them as well when he was strong enough. They boy would not be able to find the room now that he had been shown where to look, and once he did, the secrets of the Uchiha clan would be unlocked for the young boy.

Without the drive for acknowledgement to fuel on Sasuke, Itachi replaced it with something more powerful. No Sasuke would not be driven by the need to protect someone like Itachi had been. Sasuke's motivation in life would be much simpler. Itachi whispered hoarsely into the young boy's ear. He told him the lied about the murders that he needed to hear. He told him how to gain power. He made sure that the boy would hate him and push himself to become the avenger of the Uchiha clan.

Then, Itachi showed Sasuke everything. He forced Sasuke to see as Itachi watched the Uchiha clan go about their business in the compound. He forced the boy to see though his eyes, to feel his hands hold the blade as if they were his own hands. As one, they traveled through Itachi's memory within the powerful illusion of the Mangekyou. The pitch black moon shown on them as in one body they relived the killing spree. Uchiha after Uchiha feel before their blade as Itachi felt the horror and revulsion build within Sasuke.

As one, the brothers slashed through old and young alike. Sasuke saw Uchiha after Uchiha fall to his brother's hands. He saw young and old taken down by that blade. He saw aunts and uncles and cousins die by the hand of his older brother. Not a one of the victims of that night was an unnamed face, a person he did not know. No, every victim of his brother that night was known to Sasuke – they were family. The old woman who gave him a cookie at the bakery. His great aunt who always made sure he had the freshest fruit when he was sent to run errands for his mother. The uncle who taught him to fish. The cousins he played ball with in front of the house.

Sasuke saw Uchiha after Uchiha fall to his brother's sword. Everyone involved in near every warm memory from Sasuke's child hood was killed before his eyes. The illusion cast by the Mangekyou was so realistic that he could feel the blood, he could smell the blood. It was too real, it was as if he were there.

Sasuke thought he was going to pass out when he saw his mother and father alive and looking at him – no looking at his bother with fear in their eyes. He saw his brother's sword plunge into his mother. He saw her blood stick to the blade as it was pulled from her lifeless body. He saw his mother die. The woman who sang him to sleep when he was sick. The woman who always asked how his day was and cleaned his wounds when he got hurt. The woman who always had a kind word for him when he felt he was disappointing everyone by not being as good as his older bother. He saw her die before him and his brother step over her lifeless corpse to plunge his blade into their father.

Sasuke wished he could change this nightmare as Itachi forced him to witness the death of their father. The blade plunged in again, relived in perfect detail thanks to the Mangekyou. The realism of the illusion was so detailed that Sasuke could feel how for a moment the blade stuck a rib and caught before plunging on for the killing blow. Sasuke felt the blood on his own hands as if his hands were his brother's hands and not his own. He felt everything as if it were his blade and not his brother's blade.

Itachi made Sasuke feel every thing as they relived the death of their mother and father. The entire clan's death had been played out before the young boy. He knew the child would hate him. There was no way he could explain what he had done to the child. Maybe someday Sasuke would understand. Itachi doubted he would ever live to see that day as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop in the Uchiha district. He perched on an electric pole as he looked down to see his brother running from the room that held the bodies of their parents. The boy was crying and scared and would collapse soon. The boy's panicked fleeing from the Uchiha compound would bring ANBU down on the area in force. Itachi ran as fast as he could away from the dead. Sasuke would be taken care of by the village. He would be hunted by that was al right. Sasuke was safe.

He flew over the village wall and did not pause as he tore through the forest, leaping from tree branch to tree branch. The slightest amounts of chakra as were possible to maintain his grip on the branches flowed to his feet. There could be no excess chakra use, not with how depleted he was from the murders.

Itachi fled through the trees, he had thought through to what he would do if he escaped the village alive. Life as a solo Missing ninja would be short. He would never be able to rest. He needed to find a group to join, and the only group he had any confidence in was the Akatsuki. According to the most recent intelligence the ANBU had, Kisame was in Grass country now and had not yet been teamed up with another from the Akatsuki. There were no guarantees, but Itachi could now gamble with his life. He was no longer the heir to the Uchiha clan. He was no longer the one who had to protect Sasuke. Everything that he could do, he had done. Now everything back in Konoha was up to his little brother. Itachi's life was once again his own as it had been back before he had 'earned' the right to wear the Uchiha fan.

It took two bone numbingly long days of a hard run before Itachi crossed into Grass country. Another two days of careful hiding and searching before he found the desolate cave that Kisame was hiding in. Itachi crept up to the cave, his Sharingan was activated as he watched for any sign of a trap because had to be very careful. The graphic story of the Uchiha murders had spread almost as fast as Itachi could run. Sneaking through border towns to find food to steal, he had heard people talking in the bars and the streets about how a single person had killed the entire Uchiha clan, leaving only a young boy to escape the murders. The rumors that the murderer was also a member of the Uchiha clan were starting to spread as well. No one could believe that such a powerful clan was destroyed by a thirteen-year-old boy.

Itachi walked into the cave, letting a flare of chakra escape as he announced his presence. He did not want to sneak up on anyone as dangerous as Kisame. Without the Mangekyou, Itachi had no chance against the swordsman originally from mist. Even with the Mangekyou, he would have a difficult time killing the man, if he even could take out the other man; neither shinobi would escape the battle unharmed.

The light of a small campfire flickered off the walls of the cave as Itachi stepped into the faint light. Of course he was an Uchiha, so he could see everything in perfect detail. He saw the extremely tall man with the blue skin and ominous physical presence. He knew how different they appeared. He was still just a thirteen-year-old boy, a shinobi of Konoha … or former shinobi. He had a price on his head now.

Itachi walked confidently into the light, not letting any fear show in his pose or eyes. "I am Uchiha Itachi. The strongest shinobi born to the Uchiha clan in generations. I am the one who has destroyed the most powerful clan of the leaf village. I wish to join the Akatsuki." He stared Kisame in the eyes. He knew how disconcerting staring into the Sharingan eyes were, and he was going to use every trick he had to get his spot in the organization.

Itachi knew Kisame was without a partner. He had been the one to kill the man's last partner, so he had proven that he was stronger than she had been. Her spot was rightfully his. He knew he needed the protection of a group like the Akatsuki, he just needed to fight for that spot.


	21. Epilogue

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not making any money off this. This is simply my take on the large blanks Kishimoto-san left for us in the Uchiha's history.

Warnings: This story spans from war to massacre to abuse of various forms. Topics in this may be unpleasant for the reader so reader discretion is advised.

Spoilers: This contains spoilers for Kakashi Gaiden. All other information referenced in the story should only involve episodes that have been shown on Cartoon network and Chapters that have been published in volume format in English.

I don't have a Beta right now. If this changes, this note will change

Notes: This was completed for National Novel Writing Month and is complete, it will be posted chapter by chapter as they receive their final edit.

_The Uchiha Massacre_

_- Conclusion -_

Kakashi walked though the Uchiha compound. His white ANBU armor covered in blood from moving so many bodies. Everywhere the ANBU looked, there were bodies. The entire area reeked of blood and decay. It had been three days since a young dark haired boy had run screaming from the compound. The child, Uchiha Sasuke, was unconscious in the hospital now. Kakashi was certain they were drugging the boy, the mental anguish of having come home to find this much have been over whelming. To find one's entire body killed in such a brutal manner was unthinkable. To know the atrocity had been committed by your own brother though … Kakashi did not think that there were words to describe that type of betrayal.

Between the physical evidence and the young Uchiha's recollection of the events, they knew what had happened that fateful night. They did not know why. What could have made Uchiha Itachi do this? Kakashi stopped on the porch of Uchiha Itachi's former residence. He had known the boy. He had let the boy sleep on his floor. Something was not right here. Kakashi shook his head as he huffed under his breath. Obviously, something was not right here. Over two hundred people had been killed in the space of a few hours.

Yes, Itachi was a troubled boy with something horrible going on in his life. This, however, did not make sense. Kakashi, Yuuhi-sensei, and Morino-sensei had not detected any thing like this in the boy. Kakashi felt he had failed Itachi, to not have discovered what was troubling the boy in time to prevent the destruction of the boy's entire clan. Kakashi walked amongst the death and destruction. Bodies of the old and the young were strewn everywhere, left to rot in the sun where they had fallen. It was slaughter, pure and simple. Kakashi traced the path of bodies. The first few kills showed a hesitation from the boy. As the body count grew though, the killing became mechanical and automatic, as if the boy had stopped caring that this was his clan he was killing without any thought to their lives.

The chakra depletion from using his Sharingan this much was exhausting, but his single eye from Obito was the last Sharingan that the village had. He had to do his best to discover everything about the crime scene that he could. He did not know how the boy could have killed everyone in only four hours. Four short hours from when the first bodies had fallen to when Sasuke ran screaming from the Uchiha district was such little time. For anyone it should have been impossible. Several of the fallen had been ANBU. Many had been high ranked Jônin. These were Uchiha, not normal civilians that were killed in such a short time.

Nearly half of the police for of Konoha had been slaughtered in those few hours. There was no way a Chuunin; even a chuunin of Itachi's abilities, should have been able to cause this type of destruction. Yes, there had been plans to promote him to Jônin, but still. It should have taken squads of ANBU to causes such destruction, not just one single thirteen-year-old boy.

Kakashi stood in the center of the Uchiha district, finally covering his Sharingan eye to stop the chakra drain. He had seen this type of ability from the boy before. That one fateful mission when he had been sure they would both die. He had not been able to divert much attention to his teammate. Even a fraction of a second distraction from his opponent at the time would have proven to be fatal. However, out of the corner of his eye, he had seen something unusual. Something that night had been different about the Uchiha's movements. They had been faster, more accurate. Something about those movements had been unusual, different from what he was used to seeing fro the Uchiha style.

It was months before intelligence was able to put together what happened with Kakashi's half remembered glimpses of that night. When they discovered that there was another form of the Sharingan eye and somehow that Itachi had obtained it, answers began to be pieced together. Before long Konoha learned that Uchiha Itachi was the latest recruit to the Akatsuki. This was extremely bad for Konoha, but nothing could be done now. Figuring out what had been wrong with the young Uchiha might have helped, but that time was long past. Now the only option left to Kakashi was to find his old pupil and take him out before he could cause any more harm to Konoha.

When Sasuke was released from the hospital, he was put in the custody of a nice family he did not know. Everyone seemed worried about him, but they did not under stand what had happened. They did not know how Itachi had shown him the entire destruction of his clan in such vivid detail. They did not understand that he had seen the destruction of his clan over and over, the nightmares that he had been forced to relive. The vivid dreams of destruction and death and feeling how it felt as the blood dripped arms. The feeling of the blood and the blade. The catch of the blade as it snagged on bone before plunging deep into soft flesh. He saw death take his mother over and over as it was replayed in his dreams lit by the black moon of his brother's illusion. He woke up screaming every night, his mouth locked open in silent terror.

Sasuke slipped out of bed and snuck through the village. He slipped through narrow alleyways between buildings. The Uchiha compound appeared before him and he slipped tough the gates. It lie abandoned. The compound felt like a tomb instead of the home it had once been. He walked past the store his aunt and uncle used to run. He walked past the houses of cousins and aunts and uncles and relatives that he did not even know how they were related. Every house was silent. This was a tomb now, a place where the living did not belong. This was a tomb, the final resting place of the clan. This was a land of the dead, the land of the Uchiha. All the Uchiha were dead.

As the realization struck Sasuke, he collapsed to his knees. The tears he had not let fall streaming from his face. He collapsed in the middle of the street, no one there to see him as he cried for his family, cried for his clan and cried for the destruction brought about by his brother. The brother that he had looked up to, the brother whom he had idolized that he had yearned for the approval of.

Itachi peered out at his little brother, watching the tears flow from the young boy's eyes. He only had a few hours, if even that. He did not know how long he could avoid detection by Konoha's ANBU squads. He saw his brother stand up, the look of determination on the young boy's face confirmed that Itachi had made the right decision. The boy was young but he was strong. He would pick up the pieces of what had been called the Uchiha clan and he would be able to rebuild it.

Itachi turned and raced off across the rooftop. The future of the Uchiha clan was secure. Sasuke would be strong enough to rebuild the clan. He would be able to bring about what the Uchiha clan should be. Itachi would push his brother; make sure that the youngest was strong. He would remain alive and give his little brother a target for the hatred and the pain that loosing his family had brought about. Sacrificing everything for his brother had been a gamble, but as Itachi returned to the hell known as Akatsuki, it was worth it. The clan would be rebuilt. Sasuke would rebuild the clan from the blank slate that Itachi had washed clean with the family's blood.

THE END


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